Catapult
by R-I-C-A-R-D
Summary: When Commander Shepard's older sister unexpectedly arrives on the Citadel, Shepard and Williams are catapulted into an adventure of not quite epic proportions but still fairly big. Rated M for some language and adult references. Reviews welcome. Complete.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note**: Some notes before I kick things off. Alternate Universe but only slightly. Spacer Shepard is supposed to be an only child but I think that's a bit boring. Obviously I'm not the first to do the whole 'sibling' thing but I'm not doing the long lost twin he never knew he had thing. That's been done. A note on classes: Shepard is Spacer/War Hero/Paragon/Sentinel with Singularity Bonus. Also, there will be some completely gratuitous cursing on the sister's part. Whenever I envision her character, I keep coming up with 'foul-mouthed chain-smoker.' The 'M' rating is mostly for language and some sexual references. I worked out my urge to do ultra violent combat scenes in Fade To Black; this is a lot more light hearted.

I'd also like to extend my thanks to everybody who's read and reviewed my previous works. You guys rock hard and the positive feedback is great.

* * *

_Always be kind to your siblings. You never know when you may need a new kidney_

1. Therapy

Bethany lay on the leather couch in the doctor's office, hands crossed over her chest. The doctor noted that his patient's fingernails were bitten down to the quick and that her red nail polish was badly chipped. "I had one of those dreams again, Doctor," she said, voice low and husky. She stared unblinkingly up at the acoustical tiles of his office ceiling.

The doctor leaned forward in his seat, consulting his patient's casefile. "What sort of dream?" he asked gently. He sat back in surprise as Bethany sat bolt upright on the couch, bloodshot green eyes boring into him like lasers. "The sort of dream where something really terrible happens! Then when I tell the _authorities_," her voice dripped with venom as she spoke the word, "about what I saw, they refuse to believe me and threaten to arrest me for wasting police resources."

"Look at this!" Bethany snapped, breaking eye contact with the doctor as she began delving with manic energy through her large black leather handbag. Bethany removed and discarded several items - lipstick, cell phone, tampons, cigarettes - before coming up with a sheaf of crumpled papers, printouts from extranet news sites. These she thrust at the doctor.

"Look at them!" The hardcopy in Bethany's hand shook slightly. The doctor accepted the papers cautiously, as though fearing contamination and quickly perused the article.

The headline read: **Freighter Crash Kills Dozens** and below, in a smaller typeface: _Authorities Deny 'Accidentally On Purpose' Eezo Exposure_

"May sixteen, freighter crash, I dreamed that and it happened. Fifty people dead! And fuck knows how many expectant mothers were exposed to airborne element zero. Twenty years from now there's gonna be a shitload of new biotics, let me tell ya."

The doctor opened his mouth to say something. He really disapproved of women using coarse language, call him prudish but it just went against the grain. Growing up, his parents had employed the time-honoured method of washing out their childrens' mouths with soap whenever they said a 'bad word.' Even now, the doctor could almost taste it.

Before he could reply, the distraught woman pushed a second sheet of paper into his hands. **Daycare Centre Horror** screamed the headline. Below that: _Terra Firma Denies Responsibility - 'We would have used a larger bomb' says unnamed source_

"And this!" Bethany went on, voice rising, "One of those Earth-First nutjobs blows himself up outside a turian daycare centre! What kind of sick sonofabitch blows up _children?_ I dreamed that as well! And you know what happened when I tried to warn 'em about it? Huh, do ya? Lemme tell ya, I was arrested and fuckin' _interrogated_ for twelve hours! They thought I was a terrorist! Me!" Bethany laughed, and the doctor, who was not inclined to flights of fancy thought that it was the laugh of the damned. "I know I haven't been quite _right_ since that little incident when I was seventeen but even an idiot can see there's a pattern emerging here!"

As though exhausted by her profanity-laced tirade, Bethany's shoulders slumped and she sat forward, elbows on knees, head down, auburn hair falling in front of her face. Sitting up again, she picked up her cigarette pack, tapped out a coffin-nail, removed her much-loved Zippo from the handbag and lit up.

"Ahem," the doctor cleared his throat, nodding his head at the No Smoking sign on his desk. Bethany's eyes flicked to the wall clock. She only had five minutes of her session left anyway. Smiling defiantly, Bethany drew heavily on the cigarette, held the smoke for several seconds before exhaling languidly.

"Bethany, you know the rules about smoking. Please put out the cigarette."

"Or what? You'll spank me and send me to my room without dinner? Please. Look, Doctor, I can tell you don't believe me and frankly, the only reason I agreed to these stupid sessions in the first place is because my brother talked me into them but I think we both know that no amount of _counselling_ is gonna change anything."

With that, Bethany Amber-Louise Shepard collected her belongings and left the psychologist's office.

The dreams Bethany had been experiencing of late were particularly nasty - why she couldn't dream of next week's winning lottery numbers she didn't know. Lately, she'd been seeing huge, insect-like creatures in a laboratory setting of some sort. Then the insect-like creatures running amok like the bugs out of _Aliens_ and killing everything that moved. Messily.

The dreams were incredibly vivid; Bethany found she could even identify several of the scientists and lab techs from the names embroidered on their stark white lab coats. For all the good having names would do her. What was she meant to do? Call up C-Sec and say _I had this really whacked out dream and you should go and have a little chat with Dr Savrashi about whatever the hell he's working on out in the ass end of space. What? Where did I get my information? Uh, gotta go._

Yeah, _that'd_ really do the trick. Last time she'd gone the _anonymous tip_ route, a pair of big guys in dark suits had shown up at her door and she'd found herself in an _interview room_ undergoing _polite questioning_. For twelve fucking hours. "I gotta tell ya, Mister Darcy, the authorities, bunch of frigging imbeciles. You tell 'em you have information that could prevent a crime, they seem more interested in running a background check on you than on following up on the tip. _Then_ they act all surprised when what you told 'em was gonna happen, _fucking happens!"_

Bethany stalked around her one-bedroom apartment, grabbing clothing and other items and stuffing them into a suitcase while she tapped a sequence of digits into the phone. Mister Darcy looked at her curiously as she moved rapidly to and fro, smoking a cigarette down to the filter, waiting for the phone at the other end to be picked up.

"Come on, come on, pick up the damn phone you dozy bitch....Annabelle! Hi! It's Bethany....Bethany Shepard from up the road?....I watered your rose bushes for you while you were on holiday that time?...._yes the Spectre's older sister_....Yeah, no, I'm good, thanks for asking. Listen, the reason I'm calling you up.....uh huh, yeah, no, no, I'm totally listening..." Bethany turned to Mister Darcy, rolled her eyes and mouthed _chatty bitch_. Speaking into her hands-free headset, Bethany attempted to regain control of the conversation, "Look, Anna, I'd _really _love to hear all about your father-in-law's colononscopy but I have a favour to ask you....It's no big deal really, I just need somebody to house sit while I'm away....I don't know how long I'll be gone, it depends on how cooperative certain people are....Well can't your husband cook for himself for a coupla weeks or so?....Yeah, tell me about it, men, you practically have to hold their hands while they go to the bathroom....I'll also need you to mind Mister Darcy....there's plenty of food....Well, if you run out just buy some more....yes, I'll _reimburse you_ for any expenses you incur," Bethany rolled her eyes in frustration and ran a hand through her shoulder-length red hair.

Annabelle Sims, wife of an industrialist worth, at last count, well over three billion credits, having a hissy fit over the price of a few cans of pet food. Bethany turned back to Mister Darcy, mouthed _cheap and a chatty bitch. _Mister Darcy for his part merely cocked his head to one side in a manner that Bethany found utterly endearing. "I'm sending you the access codes to get past the front door now. I really appreciate this, Anna, I owe you big....Sure, I can't wait to hear all about the colonoscopy. OK, bye!" Tapping a button on the headset, Bethany cut the link.

Her next call was to her sometime employer Hillary Marks who operated a classy escort agency that contracted Bethany on occasion. The work for the most part was easy - pose as arm candy for some filthy rich, lonely old men while the said filthy rich old men attended charity balls, corporate shindigs and the like.

Bethany found she quite liked the work, except being in six-inch stiletto heels for any length of time was absolutely murder on her calf muscles. That and the way most people inevitably linked the word _escort_ with _prostitute_. Bethany wasn't a prostitute. Her clients didn't pay her to have sex, they paid for her company and her ability to feign an interest in subjects ranging from golf, antique washing machines and their corporation's third quarter earnings.  
Bethany had nothing against prostitutes - she had a certain amount of respect for anybody who could rake in thousands of credits a week lying in bed, albeit with some overweight sweaty man pressing her into the bed as he snorted like a racehorse atop her, but that particular career path didn't excite her.

There had been a time once, years past, when her aspirations had lain in a completely different direction - the 'family business' if you will but a little incident had put paid to that and Bethany had drifted from job to job - delivery driver, trainee florist, cubicle dweller in thankless office jobs until finally, purely on a whim, she'd seen an ad calling for photographic models and, somewhat inebriated after consuming half a bottle of red wine, had fired off an application over the extranet, attaching the required holographs of herself. After that she'd fallen asleep in front of the vidscreen, Mister Darcy curled up at her feet.

A few days later, she'd gotten a call from the modelling agency and much to her surprise, they'd asked her to come in for an interview. Bethany hadn't expected much. Looking at herself in the mirror as she'd gotten ready, she appraised her appearance in the glass as objectively as possible. Her wavy, shoulder length auburn hair was her best feature, she decided. Then the eyes. Accented with a hint of shadow and eyeliner, her eyes were absolutely killer. She had a great smile, everybody said so, even her brother and he was usually awful at complimenting a woman unless he was hitting on her. Looking down at the rest of herself, things were also pretty good, she'd decided: breasts not too big but not too small, firm, flat stomach, long legs. Call her conceited but Bethany decided the entire package wasn't shabby. Not shabby at all.

"Bethany, in this industry, we have a term to describe people of your level of attractiveness," the head of the modelling agency had told her.

"And what term is that?"

"Smoking hot. Bethany, we're looking for somebody to be the 'face' of a new brand of lipstick. We'd like that 'face' to be yours. What do you say?"  
"Just so long as this job doesn't involve stripping, amateur porno or a fucking casting couch, I'm in."

After being the 'face' of Sweet Vixen cosmetics and perfumes for several months, her boss at the modelling agency had asked her if she wanted to try her hand at some escort work for a friend of his, Hillary Marks. Apparently Ms Marks had seen the overly-airbrushed images of Bethany on several billboards and decided she wanted to meet the woman in the flesh.

"Hang on, when I took this job, I believe I signed a _no sex clause_, remember that, Fritz? No sex? An escort agency? Fuck that for a joke." Bethany made to leave the office.

Fritz held up a hand in a placating gesture, sighed to himself. "Bethany, this escort agency provides precisely that: escorts, dates if you like for various clients. There's no sex involved at all. I should know, I've used them enough times...ever since my wife divorced me and ran off with my sister...those slags...no offence."

"Look Fritz, I don't wanna hear about your problems with lesbians, but if you say this Marks woman is legit, I'll meet her."

So it was that Bethany Shepard went from being the 'face' of Sweet Vixen to being a highly-paid semi-professional girlfriend for hire. And now she was back on the phone, this time to Hillary.

"Hillary! How's tricks?...Hmmm, yeah about that ambassador you wanted me to escort next month, gonna have to pull out, sorry. What do you mean I can't pull out?...You're shitting me, right? He _specifically_ requested me?....I don't care how much he's willing to pay, I have some business to take care of on the Citadel...no, it _can't wait, God damn it!_ Listen to me, Hillary, find somebody else. Talk to Clarissa, she's a total slut but if the ambassador has a thing for redheads, he'll go nuts over her...I know I'm putting you in a tight situation and you know that I'd never back out of a job unless it was really important....I can't say, you wouldn't believe me anyway, it's so whacked out....Thanks, Hillary, I mean it, thanks. I'll make it up to you when I get back."

_If I get back_.

---

Ashley strolled through the lower Wards markets, hand in hand with the Skipper. They weren't talking at the moment, each content to enjoy the other's company in silence. Shepard's hand felt warm in her own and again Ash marvelled at how lucky she was just to be here with him, side by side, just walking along like any normal couple. For the time being, at least, Shepard wasn't a Spectre, or the commander officer of the _Normandy_, and she wasn't Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams. For the time being they were simply Augustus and Ashley, walking side by side, secure in the love they had for each other and - Shepard stopped abruptly and a shudder ran through him. "Skipper, are you OK?"  
"Wow, it felt as though a goose just walked over my grave," the Skipper replied, wondering where the bizarre feeling of impending doom had come from. He had no way of knowing that, at that very moment, in the Asgard system, his sister was boarding a Citadel-bound transport, her head full of dreams and visions like some modern-day harbinger of doom.

Shaking his head, Shepard put his arms around Ash, kissed her hair and said, "It's probably nothing. Let's keep walking."

---

"You be a good boy for Annabelle while I'm away, Mister Darcy, OK?" Bethany said, kneeling next to the dog and embracing him tightly. Mister Darcy nuzzled her face and whined gently. She let him go and with a final look back at the apartment, left the building.

Outside the apartment, the heat of Terra Nova during high summer was an almost physical weight pressing down on her. Heat shimmer rose from city streets and pavements in visible waves. Sunlight glimmered from passing vehicles, the reflected rays seemingly hell-bent on frying her retinas. Bethany cursed volubly, causing a passing asari to frown at her. _Sunglasses, were are my damn sunglasses!_Frustrated, Bethany yanked her bag from her shoulder and dumped its contents out onto the ground before her. Snagging her sunglasses from the top of the heap, Bethany quickly stuffed her accumulated detritus back into the bag and headed down the street, seeking an air taxi.

"Where to, beautiful?" the driver asked as the taxi settled to the street, dust swirling into the air.

"The spaceport, handsome," she replied, sliding into the rear seat. The interior of the taxi was blessedly cool after walking through what felt like the inside of a blast furnace. As the taxi rejoined the flow of airborne traffic, the driver turned the radio to a news station.

_In news from the Citadel, Council spokespeople have confirmed that humanity's ambassador to the Citadel Council, Donnel Udina has been named as humanity's first representative on the Council, in the wake of humanity's part in defeating the geth invasion of last year._

"Good fucking God, what idiot decided to put _Udina _on the Council?" Bethany gasped, shocked. If even half the things she'd heard from her brother were true, Udina was a first-class son of a bitch. On the other hand, that was probably how he'd gotten the job.

"Hey, lady, no swearing in my cab, OK?" the driver turned to glare at her through the scarred plexiglass screen separating driver from passenger.

"Yeah, whatever," Bethany shrugged, removing her cigarette pack and lighter from her jacket pockets.

"And no smoking either," the driver went on, eyes meeting hers as though challenging her to light up.

Bethany smiled the smile that had graced many a billboard and holomag page. The driver relaxed and turned back to the front. He flinched at the sound of the Zippo then with abrupt motions, pulled back down to street level. "What the hell?" Bethany snapped, cigarette tumbling from her lower lip and narrowly avoiding falling inside her blouse.  
"You. Out of my cab," he ordered through the glass.

"Oh come _on_, man!" Desperately, Bethany hit the guy with the full force of her come hither look - lips slightly parted, gazing at him through half-lidded eyes, eyelashes batting furiously. Nothing.

"Out. Now," the driver repeated. With a string of curses that would have mortified her mother, Bethany exited the cab.

Outside, it felt even hotter than before and Bethany could actually feel her skin beginning to burn. Arms spread wide, head tilted back, she shouted at the sky, "God, why do you hate me? Is this some kind of perverse test? Oh sure, let's send the foul-mouthed chain-smoker a cab driver who won't tolerate either smoking _or_ swearing and see how she reacts! Fucking _brilliant!_"

Arms falling back to her sides and head slumping forward, Bethany set about hailing another cab, ignoring the way the crowds of people flowed around her like river water around a rock.

---

"What would you like to do for dinner?" the Skipper asked his beloved.

"Well, instead of...._dinner_, I thought I'd like to _do_ you," Ash whispered into his ear as they walked through the crowds of the lower markets. Shepard turned his head, saw the truly wicked little grin on her lips and the look in her eyes.

"You're incorrigible," he whispered back.

"And that's why you love me," she said, pulling him into a tight embrace.

"Yeah," he replied, breathless as always by the feel of her, "I thought to myself the first time I saw you, _that woman is incorrigible._"

Breaking away from him, Ash said, "Let's go to that new place in the Wards. Kentucky Fried Varren."  
"Varren?" the Skipper asked as they resumed walking.

"Yeah, it tastes like chicken."  
"Well, OK. And afterward we can have _dessert_."  
"Now who's incorrigible?" she replied, smiling.

"I learned from the best, my love. D'you think we should invite the rest of the crew as well? It feels like I haven't seen them in ages."  
"Oh gee, Skipper and I was looking forward to playing footsies with you under the table," Ash said, with wide-eyed glee. "Sure, let's call up Liara and Tali. What about Garrus?"

"Last I heard, he was up to his mandibles in some investigation with C-Sec or other. He must be hating the red tape."

"Give him another three months, tops and he'll resign in disgust all over again," Ash confidently predicted.

The happy couple stopped at the rear of a group people from various races watching a newsvid broadcast to a public holoscreen. Onscreen, the salarian anchor was recapping the day's top story - the appointment of Donnel Udina to the Citadel Council.

"Skipper, explain something to me," Ash began.

"We can't have sex in public because we'd be jailed for public indecency," Shepard quipped and winced as Ash punched him in the shoulder.

"Ha de ha ha. No, how did we end up being represented by Udina?"  
"Well, he's a politician and the Council probably figured after being our ambassador for so many years, he was the best qualified."

"Yeah, he's _a politician._"

"Ash, he isn't all bad."  
"Skipper, this is the same man who grounded the _Normandy_ and as I recall your exact words to him at the time were _nobody stabs me in the back, Udina, nobody."_

"I was worked up at the time," Shepard said defensively.

"You should have killed and eaten him," a familiar rumble came from behind them.

"Wrex!" Shepard said delightedly, turning away from the screen and shaking the krogan's hand.

"Shepard. I'm glad I ran into you. I'm leaving the Citadel for a time. Going back to Tuchanka with my family's armour, pay my respects to my father's father."

"Have a safe trip, Wrex," Shepard replied.

"Safe? Where's the fun in that?" the krogan scoffed and, having said his piece, ambled away.

"Y'know, I think I may actually miss that overgrown lizard," Ash commented, watching as said overgrown lizard pushed and shoved his way through those too slow or too stupid to get out of his way fast enough.

"Quick, call Emily Wong! I can see the headlines now: _Ashley Williams confesses to missing a krogan!"_

"You just lost your dessert, Skipper," Ashley replied and began walking at a brisk pace through the crowds. Shepard ran to catch up.

---

If Bethany thought things had started out badly, what with her being ejected from an air taxi like some delinquent school girl, now things had degenerated to a point best described by those familiar with military jargon as FUBAR. Beth was queuing up at the spaceport, to buy a ticket the Citadel, fidgeting with nervous energy. She wanted a cigarette. No, that was a lie, she _needed_ a cigarette. Bethany knew her nicotine addiction was bad for her health, she knew chapter and verse all the reasons why smoking was bad for her - risk of cancer of the lung, lips, tongue, throat and, for all she knew, her special women's area. She just didn't care.

Bethany could never understand exactly why smokers were so frowned upon compared to say, binge drinkers. When was the last time a smoker lost control of his or her car and ploughed through a crowd of pedestrians, leaving a pile of mangled bodies in his or her wake? But for some unfathomable reason, getting tanked was still socially acceptable. Nobody gave a rat's ass as long as their coworkers didn't turn up to work still inebriated from the previous night's festivities but light up a cigarette outside one of the rapidly dwindling number of places where it wasn't considered a capital offence to smoke and people treated you like some diseased piece of filth. Worse than Hitler. Scratch that, worse than the bastard love child of Hitler, Saren Arterius and Ambassador...excuse me_ Councilman _Udina.

Beth stood in the queue, jaw working furiously as she chewed a stick of nicotine gum. The gum was next to useless in the face of her craving. Bethany shifted her weight from left foot to right foot, back again. Stuffed her hands deep inside the pockets of her leather jacket, pulled them out again. "What's the fucking hold up?"  
"I _beg_ your pardon?" the old lady in front of her turned to glare over her shoulder at Bethany, who hadn't realised she'd spoken aloud. Bethany sighed, tongued the wad of gum from the inside of one cheek to the other. "The queue. I mean, we live in a galaxy with faster than light travel, contact with alien peoples and advances in medical care that let a person live to a be a hundred and fifty and still we stand in line like idiots waiting to buy a ticket. Doesn't that strike you as absurd?"  
"Be that as it may but it is no excuse for such _foul language._ Young lady, you ought to be ashamed of yourself! What would you mother think?"  
Bethany rolled her eyes. What _would _Hannah think? "Lady, my mother's the XO of one of the Alliance fleet's most powerful ships. What comes out of _my_ mouth is pretty tame compared to what Fleet personnel come out with while on shore leave. Trust me on this."

"Hmmph! Well I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree in _your_ family," the old lady snapped before her white-haired head turned back to the front of the line. Bethany's fingers twitched and a brief mental image, incredibly vivid rose in her mind's eye - her calmly throttling the life out of the little old lady. She shuddered and popped another stick of gum into her mouth. But honestly, what was the _fucking _hold up?

The hold up was in the form of a hanar at the head of the queue who was remonstrating with the young woman behind the counter. The young lady's name tag identified her as Karen but nobody standing on the opposite side of the counter from her _ever_ called her Karen. It was usually _Hey you, Lady, Sweetheart_ and, occasionally,_ Chicky-babe._ And that was just from the female customers.  
As it floated before her, the hanar continued to make its case. "This one humbly points out that, as it is acting to spread the truth of the Enkindlers to all, it should not have to pay a fare. Understanding and Enlightenment must not be constrained by economic realities."  
Karen sighed. She _always_ got the difficult ones. Last week, it was some idiot sandblasted out of his mind who insisted that he didn't have to pay for a ticket to Elysium because his friend, conveniently invisible to everybody else, had already paid for the ticket. Invisible friend, right.  
"Sir, I cannot let you board without a ticket. Now, are you going to pay up or will I be forced to call security?" as Karen spoke, her right hand, adorned with a ring on each finger, slowly drifted to the panic button hidden beneath the counter.

Karen missed the days when, instead of a panic button, there was a stun gun mounted there. But after an unfortunate incident involving a salarian, a heart condition and repeated stunner applications, the weapons were banned. Karen sighed again. The hanar's tentacles twitched for several seconds and its pink glow deepened towards red.  
"This one wishes to converse with the other's supervisor," it finally intoned.  
Karen shrugged; once she called in Vince, the hanar would no longer be _her_ problem. "Fine with me."

_Finally_ the line was moving forward again and Bethany felt a rare surge of excitement as she shuffled forward a couple of paces behind the little old lady. She was actually _doing_ something about her dreams, visions, whatever and it felt oh so good to be doing something other than waking up at 0300 gasping, perspiration running down her face, hands bunching into fists around the coverlet as she fought down a scream. Bethany smiled and began humming a tune. She was beginning to feel good.

The good, warm and fuzzy feeling departed with stunning rapidity about ten minutes after Bethany stowed her luggage in the transport's overhead lockers and settled herself in her seat, G37. A salarian with bluish green skin seated himself beside her and began talking so rapidly, Beth was almost certain he was high on something.  
"Is-this-your-first-trip-to-the-Citadel?It's-my-first-trip-to-the-Citadel!Oh-I'm-so-excited!Are-you-excited?I'm-Jallan,'s-your-name?" The salarian shoved a tri-fingered hand at her.

Bethany's parents had, during her childhood, done their best to instill a modicum of good manners in their children and, even as Bethany's mind was attempting to decode the salarian's speed-rapping speech, her right hand quite independent of her conscious mind rose to accept the handshake. In retrospect, this was a mistake as the salarian seemed to take it as a sign that he'd found his new best friend and proceeded to talk her ear off.  
_Somebody please kill me now_, Bethany thought. It wasn't that she didn't like salarians, she did. She found them easier to get along with than turians for instance but anybody who came up to her and began banging on at her as though they'd known each other for years instantly raised her hackles.

Then, unbelievably, things got worse. A hanar floated along the aisle between the rows of seats and 'sat' down on Bethany's left. Immediately the hanar began talking at her. "This one offers greetings, human. Are you interested in learning of the Enkindlers?"  
Without waiting for a reply, the hanar began talking about how the Enkindlers had raised the hanar from ignorance and into consciousness, gave them the gifts of learning and speech...it was going to be a long flight.


	2. Chapter 2

2. Snap

Approximately five hours into the flight, Bethany quietly snapped.  
Were she a character in an over-produced gaudy holo-drama, she would have risen abruptly from her seat, screaming inarticulately, rammed her thumbs into the salarian's eyes, and proceeded to run amok through the transport, before being put down by about thirty rounds to the torso. In ultra slow motion. With fake blood spraying gaily in all directions.

Cut to a security officer, sidearm in hand saying, "Nobody PMSes on _my_ watch."  
Instead, giving up her attempts to feign sleep, her eyes snapped open with an almost audible _click_ and she quietly rose from her seat, excused herself and headed to the unisex toilet booth at the rear of the vessel. She needed a cigarette. And she needed it right the hell _now_.

Moving down the aisle with quick, jerky motions, Bethany found the stall blessedly unoccupied. The door slid open automatically as she drew near and slid shut behind her. The inside of the stall was a cramped affair and between the toilet and small sink, one barely had room to turn around. Balanced on one foot, Bethany flipped the toilet seat closed with the scuffed toe of one leather boot and sat. For a few seconds, she simply savoured the blessed silence. The salarian and hanar hadn't shut up since they'd boarded. Five hours of solid yammering, pounding through her ears and into her skull like steel skewers, scraping her nerves raw. It was enough to drive even the most mild-mannered person stark staring bonkers. And Bethany wasn't even close to being mild-mannered.

Beth sat back on the closed lid of the toilet, long legs jammed up against the door and sighed. Unsurprisingly there was a no smoking sign affixed to the door. A warning, in Standard and several alien languages proclaimed that, "Those who breached regulations would be placed into custody upon arrival at their destination by security personnel."  
"Right, they're going to arrest me for smoking. Let 'em try."  
Eyes closed, Bethany removed a mostly empty cigarette pack from her jacket pocket and lit up.

Drawing the deliciously lethal smoke into her lungs, Bethany felt the muscles in her shoulders unkink a little as the very act of slowly committing suicide eased her mind and relaxed her body.

She was most of the way through her second drag when a loud, blaring alarm sounded, jolting her upright. Within seconds, the stall door slid open, revealing a pair of stern-faced guards in black uniforms. All the uniforms needed were SS insignia and the men wouldn't have looked out of place in a World War II drama. As the door whooshed open, Bethany yanked her feet away.

"Don't you people knock?" she asked, voice coloured with both anger and amazement. A thin streamer of smoke drifted upward from the cigarette held between the first and second fingers of her right hand. From the passenger compartment, Bethany could hear the voices of her fellow travellers raised in concern.  
Inside the stall, the alarm still blared. If this was what they did to people for smoking, what did they do to people trying to enter the ten thousand mile high club? Probably secretly film them and play the vids at the office Christmas party.

_Wow, check out the rack on that asari!  
So that's what an elcor looks like naked?  
__Oooh, girl on girl action!_

"Ma'am, please put the cigarette out and come with us," the first man ordered. His shaven head gleamed pinkly under the ceiling lights.  
"Or?" Amazement was fast giving way to anger. Holding the man's eyes, Beth slowly brought the cigarette to her lips and took another drag. Exhaling the smoke from the corner of her mouth, she offered the half-smoked bringer of death to the guard, "Want a puff?"

Bethany spent the entire rest of the journey jammed between the pair of black uniformed Nazis...pardon, _security personnel_. The other passengers gave her a range of looks ranging from shock - _My God, what was she doing? Trying to bomb the ship?_ to smugness - _That'll teach the bitch not to light up around us non-smokers!_  
_Look on the bright side,_ she told herself, _at least these two aren't talking you to death._

---

Ashley rolled over in the bed she shared with the Skipper, arm reaching out unconsciously for him. Her hand fell on vacant, cool sheets. Shepard wasn't there. Eyes opening in the dimly lit room, she sat upright, noting the time on the bedside clock. It had just gone one in the morning. Lately, the Commander had been spending more and more time with the Council and Navy muckety-mucks and whatever they'd been discussing during those meetings was putting undue pressure on her Skipper. Ash knew he couldn't tell her much; a lot of what went on in those meetings was classified so far beyond her level of clearance that, were the required level of clearance a planet, it wouldn't even be in the same _galaxy_ as her level of clearance.

But she couldn't just let him deal with whatever the Council was putting on him by himself.

Swinging her feet to the softly carpeted floor, Ash padded out of the bedroom, pausing in the doorway to pull on a silken dressing gown, a present from the Skipper. Normally, she didn't go in for that sort of thing but the gesture was so sweet, she accepted it gratefully.  
Ashley found her partner sitting cross legged before the window that formed an entire wall of their apartment. The window gave an awe-inspiring view of the Serpent Nebula that, with the apartment's lights dimmed, bathed the room in a soft pinkish-purple light. Ashley's heart seemed to skip a beat as she drank in the view of Shepard, his outline limned in the otherworldly light. He seemed like something out of a myth at that point - a flawless being, burdened by the weight of an incredible responsibility.

Wordlessly, Ashley sat beside him, resting her chin on his shoulder. Shepard shifted his weight, pulling her closer to him. They sat like that for a time, gazing out at the nebula, feeling the other's heart beating. Eventually Ash pulled away slightly.  
"Can't sleep?" she asked.  
"I worry about the future, you know," he replied quietly. She nodded, laid a kiss on his cheek.  
"Whatever happens, whatever the Council sends you to do, I'll be here. I swear I'll never leave your side, Augustus," Ash spoke into his ear.  
"What if-" Shepard swallowed as his voice caught, "What if the brass reassigns you? As a Spectre I can pretty much requisition anything and anybody I want but..."  
"Let's not worry about that now. If it comes to that I suppose I could cash out."  
"But the Marines are everything to you-" Shepard's reply was cut off as Ash pressed a finger to his lips.

"_You're_ everything to me, now."  
Voice slightly husky, Shepard asked, "Have I told you incredibly lucky I am to have you?"  
"Yeah...but tell me again."

---

"This is your Captain speaking. We are now arriving at our destination. Local time on the Citadel is 1145 hours Standard. Please ensure that your seats are in the upright position and that your seatbelts are on-"  
_'Cause seatbelts will totally save us if the ship crashes into the docking platform at anything faster than a slow jog._

"-we hope you enjoy a pleasant stay on the Citadel and thank you for choosing Allied Star Spacelanes."

As the captain finished speaking, Bethany's chrono bleeped, synching itself to Citadel time. It was like time travel, she often thought, travelling at FTL - she'd boarded the ship at 1530 hours on Terra Nova, travelled for over five hours and arrived at her destination earlier than when she'd departed. At least according to her watch.  
Bethany sat jammed between the pair of burly security guards, arms crossed over her chest, fingers tapping on her ribcage. "I need to go to bathroom," she muttered.  
"You already did, remember?" the shaven-headed one said, lips twitching slightly.  
"Oh, a comedian, huh? How's this for a laugh? Let me up or I'll wet myself all over you."  
Bethany stared hard at the man, daring him to call her bluff. A dull ache had settled low in her abdomen during the last couple of hours and she held her thighs tightly together, in the hopes of preventing an embarrassing incident.

Bad enough she had to exit the ship in the custody of security officers like some foiled hijacker but to exit the ship like some foiled hijacker _and_ with her jeans soaked with her own pee?  
"Fine, but I'll be right outside the door so don't try anything funny," the guard said, unbuckling his seatbelt.

Whilst she used the facilities, Bethany felt the suble thumps of the docking clamps embracing the ship like the arms of a lover. The ship gave the merest tremble as the clamps engaged and Bethany faintly heard the docking collars lock onto the ship's airlocks. She'd finally arrived. Only not quite.

"You're fining me _how much?" _Bethany snapped in disbelief at the young-looking blonde-haired C-Sec officer. After leaving the ship in the oh so charming company of the ship's security officers, she'd been left to the tender mercies of Citadel Security, presumably so they could give her a stern talking to. And maybe a spanking for good measure.  
The C-Sec officer, whose ID badge identified him as Lang, Edward, leaned back in his chair slightly.

Eddie was suddenly sure that, had the sturdy metal desk not been between them, the woman opposite him, looking travel-weary and a bit out of sorts, would have flown at him in a rage. He swallowed. The woman looked faintly familiar, like he'd seen her on a vid or something and, on a scale of one to ten, would score an eleven in the looks department. Too bad she was so old, Eddie lamented. She had to be at least thirty.

"Five hundred credits is the minimum fine for smoking on a transport," he pointed out.  
"Well golly _gee_!" Beth's voice was laden with sarcasm. "Five hundred credits for sneaking into the bathroom of a ship, like I'm doing something shameful in there, and having a smoke. What would be the fine for say, using the plastic knife they give you with your lunch, grabbing a flight attendant and trying to hijack the ship?"  
Lang just blinked at her. "Ma'am, are you suggesting you wanted to hijack the ship?"  
"Wha-fuck? No! I was just saying that...look never mind. How do you want the fine paid? In a brown paper bag like a bribe? I bet you guys are used to that."  
"Ma'am, I must inform you that attempting to bribe a C-Sec officer..."  
Bethany slapped a hand to her forehead in exasperation. Did a person have to undergo a sense of humour bypass in order to become a cop these days? Glaring at the man, Bethany dug the wallet out of her jacket pocket, flipped it open and removed a five-hundred credit chip. This she slammed onto the desktop and shoved at the officer.

"If there's nothing else?" she asked. The officer shook his head. Bethany stood up so fast that her chair fell over backwards behind her.  
"Please enjoy your stay on the Citadel," Lang said mechanically.  
_Not bloody likely_, Bethany thought as she headed towards a nearby rapid transit station and would you look at this, another queue!

Bethany stood behind a pair of salarians who seemed to be so busy arguing back and forth over where they going that they both neglected to actually _go _anywhere. Instead, they blocked everybody else's access to the transit vehicle.  
"Ahem," Bethany cleared her throat in a polite a manner as possible. The throat clearing quickly mutated into the kind of dry, hacking cough that came with a ten-year pack a day cigarette habit. The hacking cough got salarians' attention at least. "Is there something wrong?" the taller, greyish skinned one asked.  
"Yeah, I need to use that terminal and I can't while you two are standing there."  
"You'll just have to wait your turn," the second one replied and turned back to his fellow, ignoring her entirely. With a truly herculean effort, Bethany resisted the urge to shove them aside - she didn't want to end up back at C-Sec and possibly getting intimate with the inside of a cell. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. Instead she settled for loudly and openly questioning the salarians' parentage before heading at a good clip to the elevator shaft connecting the C-Sec Academy to the Presidium. Might as well see the sights while she was here. It'd also give her time to work out quite exactly how she was going to lay things out to her younger brother, he of the Star of Terra and savior of all organic life.

The elevator doors opened onto the Presidium level after what felt like an age and Bethany exited, weighed down by her suitcase. The long flight and her recent broken sleep had left her feeling quite tired all of a sudden. As Bethany wove through the crowds of people from various species, all going about their business, her eyelids began fluttering open and shut; the effect like a curtain being rapidly drawn open and closed - darkness, light, darkness, light, darkness...With an effort, Bethany forced her eyes to open and stay open but it was a temporary victory. _I'll just sit down on that bench over there by the fountains and rest for a few minutes._  
Bethany sat down on the bench by the fountains, right hand securely gripping the carry handle of her suitcase and immediately fell asleep sitting up. As she slept, she _saw_.

---

Super-Secret Research Lab, Deep Space Corner of No and Where

The lab technician, a perky young woman who was looking a great deal more scared than perky just at the moment walked rapidly towards the head scientist, Dr Savrashi. She didn't run, running would be bad, running would be like broadcasting to all and sundry 'there's been a major cock up and we're probably all screwed.' Instead she moved at the fast walk that said 'I've got important business, places to go, people to see, can't be interrupted.' As she threaded her way through the rest of the science team and security personnel, they moved aside for her.

"Dr Savrashi? I need a moment of your time," the perky-scared lab tech said, voice pitched higher than usual. The man to whom she spoke, an older gentleman who appeared to be in his fifties, with hair greying at the temples and a lined, weather-beaten face, turned to her.  
"Yes Christabel? Is something amiss?"  
Amiss? Oh only if you consider a breach of containment protocols in the secure bio-hazard lab that, suddenly, isn't so secure to be amiss. "Dr Savrashi, we've lost containment on the number four bio-hazard lab," Christabel said, voice low. She tossed a nervous glance over her shoulder, as though afraid of being overheard.

Number four? _May God have mercy on us all_, Savrashi thought. In an effort to calm the woman and project an aura of strength and competency, as though that would help, he replied, "I'm sure the redundancy systems will come online any second now-"  
The scientist's words were overridden by the facility's VI as it made public exactly how hosed everybody was: "Attention all personnel: there has been a containment breach in the number four bio-hazard lab. Primary and secondary containment systems have failed. The entire facility is now under lock-down, pending containment of loose bio-hazard contaminants. All personnel are advised to remain calm and report to quarters immediately. This is not a drill," the VI added.

The personnel didn't remain calm and they didn't report to quarters - they began running around shouting most unhelpful things like "We're all gonna die!"

From overhead, things could be heard scrambling about in the ventilation systems and, as Christabel watched in horror, one of the contaminants burst from an air vent, slicing and rending and tearing-

---

Dr Liara T'soni and her colleague, a fellow expert on Prothean history were making their way through the crowds of the Presidium when Liara's attention was captured by the human woman seated on a bench near the fountains. The woman's eyes were closed, almost as though she was asleep while seated. As Liara watched, the woman's head rocked from side to side, hair shifting across her shoulders and she moaned to herself, almost in pain.

"Dr T'soni, is something the matter?" her colleague asked. Liara turned to her colleague, "Go on ahead of me, I will meet you at the university later. I want to make sure this woman is OK."  
"If you're sure..." the other archaeologist sounded doubtful.

"Yes, I shan't be long."

The man nodded and left. Liara walked cautiously to the woman on the bench. As she drew nearer, the woman's head began moving more violently and the moaning became louder, as though she was locked in a nightmare she couldn't waken from.

"Excuse me? Are you quite all right?" Liara asked the woman, standing a few feet from her. She made no response. Liara was unsure what to do. Should she risk waking the woman? Or would it be safer for her to come awake in her own time? Deciding that doing something would be better than simply standing by and watching, Liara gently placed a hand on the woman's shoulder.

Bethany's eyes snapped open and she bolted upright, a brief piercing scream ringing out. She didn't notice the glances, worried, alarmed or suspicious shot in her direction. Liara jerked backward at the unexpected movement, hand going to her mouth.

"Christ on a pogo-stick!" the woman said, voice halfway between a shout and a scream. "What a fucking mess!" The woman pressed her hand to her chest as though hoping to slow her heart and Liara could clearly see her pulse beating in her throat.

"Are you all right?" Liara asked.

The woman started slightly, as though she were only just now aware of the asari's presence. "Where the hell did you come from?" she snapped, backing away.  
"I mean you no harm, I just saw you...having some kind of nightmare and thought you may need help," Liara tried to soothe her.

"Nightmare, heh, I wish."

"What is your name? Is there somebody I can call for you?" Liara asked. As the woman began to calm down, Liara thought she looked vaguely familiar. There was something about her eyes and hair that struck the Prothean expert as familiar.

"My name? Bethany. And you are?"

"My name is Liara T'soni," Liara offered her right hand, as she had seen humans greet each other and the woman, Bethany took it.

"T'soni? I'll be damned. Augie mentioned you in his vidmail a coupla times."

"Augie? I am afraid I do not know who you are referring to," Liara cocked her head to the side, considering this strange woman. She had obviously just arrived on the Citadel, as evidenced by the luggage at her side and was just as obviously quite travel-weary.

"Oh right, you'd know him as Commander Shepard."

"Oh! Yes. Yes, I know the Commander quite well," Liara answered. "How do you know him?" she inquired of the woman.  
"He's my brother," Bethany stated.

It would be fair to say that, though Liara's jaw didn't hit the floor, it came close. Her mouth hung open for several seconds, such was the depth of her surprise. The Commander had never mentioned a sister. With an amused looking smile, Bethany gently pressed Liara's jaw shut. The brief contact, two fingertips against her skin, sent a brief thrill through her but she could not say why.

"He never mentioned me to you, did he?" Bethany asked, shaking her head. "That little bastard."

"I do not understand. Why would he keep the fact he has a sister a secret?"

"Oh, it's not really intentional. Augie's just really crap at that sort of thing. Say, Liara, since you know him so well, maybe you could tell me where I can find him? I'm here on a surprise visit, you could say."

"The Commander has an apartment in the Wards. I can take you there if you wish," Liara offered. She felt...strange around this woman, much like she had when she'd first met the Commander. It was almost as though something inside her was calling out to something inside Liara.

Liara felt as though she needed to know everything there was to know about this woman and - _Oh by the Goddess, Liara! You have only just met this woman, you know nothing about her yet you entertain thoughts of..._ her train of thought was interrupted as Bethany replied to her offer.

"Nah, I don't want to keep you from anything. Give me his address, I'll go see him."

"Of course. I'll write his address on the back of one of my cards," Liara looked directly into Bethany's green eyes, "In case you need to contact me in the future."

As Bethany accepted the card, her fingertips brushed Liara's for an instant and again, Liara felt a brief thrill at the contact. _Oh Goddess preserve me!_

"Sure, thanks. Maybe once I find my idiot brother, we can all get together for a drink or something." With a wave, Bethany took hold of her suitcase and disappeared into the swirling crowds. Liara watched her go until she lost sight of her.

_Is it just me or was that asari chick trying to come onto me? _Bethany asked herself, remembering the look Liara had given her. "In case I need to contact her in the future, heh," she said to herself. _One thing at a time. Find Augie, lay things out, be prepared for the usual disbelief when he hears what you have to say._ Following holographic signs, Bethany soon found a Citadel Rapid Transit vehicle and punched in her brother's address.

---

Commander Shepard stood in the middle of the apartment he shared with Ash, somewhat bemused as the love of his life taped a heavy-calibre handgun to the underside of the coffee table.

"Ash? Sweetie, what's going on?"  
Without looking up, she replied, "Since the attack on the Citadel, crime in the Wards has spiked by as much as fifteen percent. I've been buying us some insurance in case somebody decides to commit a B & E while we're at home."  
"By taping a gun beneath the coffee table?"  
"Under the coffee table, dinner table, bedside table, inside the freezer and I've hidden one inside a water-proof bag inside the toilet tank."

Williams stood and admired her work. Perfect, the gun wasn't even visible unless a person knew where to look for it.

"Honey, not to rain on your parade but what happens if somebody _does_ break in and finds one of the guns?"  
Ash glared at the Skipper, hands on hips. "Give me some credit, Shepard. They're all coded to work only with my and your palm-prints."

"OK, but you don't think you're being just slightly paranoid?"

"This from the man who never leaves this apartment without his omni-tool and bio-amp."  
The Spectre shrugged, one hand moving up to rub the amplfier port at the back of his head. "I feel naked without them."

"Speaking of being naked..."

Shepard smiled as Ashley walked towards him, shedding her clothes.

---

Her head feeling like a leaden weight at the end of her neck, Bethany nodded off to sleep as the transit cab hurtled through the Citadel's artificial 'sky.' Seconds later, her head jerked upright as she fought back to wakefulness. One full-blown vision of the future was enough for one day, thank you very much. In an attempt to fight off the weariness, Bethany peered out the window of the pilotless vehicle, looking down at the masses of lights in the distance.

The Citadel truly was a monument of engineering - a massive self-contained megalopolis floating amidst the Serpent Nebula. But to Bethany, more amazing than the technological marvel that the Citadel itself, was the spirit that embodied its inhabitants. The geth attack, by all reports had been devastating. Yet the will of the people lived on. The various races banded together and the reconstruction of the Citadel went on at a pace that surprised even the most optimistic observers.

Bethany sat with her head pressed against the inside of the window, her breath fogging the glass slightly. The view was simply stunning and-

An audible groan emanating from the region of her stomach reminded her that she'd had nothing to eat except for a portion of reheated fish during the flight. Turning back to the console before her, she worked the holographic interface, searching for a restaurant.

The onboard VI inquired as to the nature of the cuisine she was interested in.

"Surprise me."

The VI recommended a place curiously named Kentucky Fried Varren and the transit vehicle set down at the terminal nearest the restaurant. Bethany found the place filled almost to bursting with people from every species in Council space and she could hear the sound of many conversations taking place as she neared the entrance. A holographic sign proclaimed that the restaurant used Only The Finest Free Range Varren.

Curiosity piqued, she turned to the hulking krogan leaning against the wall by the entrance. The doorkrogan turned its massive head towards her. His skin appeared quite thick and leathery and his crest was a dark mottled green. The doorkrogan regarded her impassively.

"How exactly do you raise free range varren on a space station?"  
The krogan considered her for several seconds before answering, its voice a low-pitched rumble. "With great difficulty."

"OK. Stupid question coming up but why does a restaurant need a krogan bouncer? A nightclub I can understand - all those drunken idiots trying to paw the dancers and such but here?"

Bethany leaned backwards as the krogan pushed himself away from the wall, each movement suggesting the massive alien was capable of moving with stunning - and violent speed.

"Organised crime," he rumbled. "Mobsters. Collecting protection money. Doran pays me to stay out here and put the fear of imminent death into anybody who comes looking for trouble. You looking for trouble?"

"I'm looking for lunch."

The krogan nodded her through. "Go right on in."

Bethany nodded as she passed by the doorkrogan, trundling her suitcase on its little wheels behind her. Inside she was greeted by a young woman who escorted her through the restaurant to a vacant table for one. As she followed the woman, Bethany's ears picked up a familiar voice calling her name.

"Ms Shepard?"

Turning and scanning the crowd, Bethany spied the asari doctor, T'soni seated alone at a table. She raised a hand in a manner that, to Bethany seemed rather tentative and waved her over. Bethany nodded. "I'll be sitting over there," she told the waitress.

"Dr T'soni, we gotta stop meeting like this," Bethany said as she sat opposite the asari.

"Ms Shepard, I am surprised to see you here. I thought you would be looking for Commander Shepard?"

Bethany shrugged, the motion causing the long auburn hair to shift across her shoulders like cascading water. Liara found the simple motion of the woman's hair difficult to look away from. Part of her wondered how it must feel - to have so many countless strands of hair growing from one's head. She imagined it must itch abominably but humans seemed unconcerned by it. Another part of her wondered what Bethany's hair would feel like, if Liara were to run her fingers through it.

_By the Goddess, Liara! What are you thinking? _She didn't know, and that scared her more than anything she'd seen during the recent geth war. Thorian creepers? Rachni? Those were nothing compared to the rampant thoughts bouncing around in her mind just now. Liara reached for her glass of water with a hand that shook minutely. Took a sip of water. Better.

"Yeah, well. I was in a transit vehicle, had the address all keyed in then I thought, fuck it, I'll have lunch instead. Uh, pardon my language."

Before Liara could respond, the waitress appeared next to the table and handed Bethany a menu. "Would you like to hear today's specials?" she asked.

"Sure."  
"Well today we have varren pasta salad - that's like chicken pasta salad only with varen instead of chicken, obviously. Then there's roast varren with steamed vegetables and finally varren surprise."  
"What's the surprise?"  
"It's made of lamb."  
"Oookay then." Bethany picked up the menu, eyes beginning to glaze over as her mind absorbed the sheer number of ways varren meat could be served up then with a shrug, stabbed a finger at a random dish and said, "I'll have that." The waitress nodded and left.

Liara observed this, fighting to keep a smile off her face.

"What?" Bethany asked, catching the look.

"You just ordered roasted varren testicles."

---

Later, as she stood outside the Ward Three apartment shared by her brother and his girlfriend, Bethany found herself mentally replaying pieces of the conversation she'd had with Dr T'soni in the restaurant. Liara had been full of questions relating to her childhood on various Alliance stations, moving from place to place as her parents, both Naval officers were assigned to different ships. Oddly enough, Liara hadn't tried to turn the conversation around to the topic of Bethany's suddenly famous little brother, as most people tended to do recently. _So tell me about yourself but tell me about your brother first because you're kinda boring and he's not._

Shaking her head, Bethany pressed the intercom button by the doorway.

"OK, wow," Ash gasped, falling back to the mattress. Beside her, the Skipper's bare sweaty chest heaved up and down as he tried to catch his breath. Ash bit down on her lower lip. "Guess I _rode_ you a little hard, huh?" she said and laughed.

"Oh yeah. But in a good way," the Skipper replied, brushing his lips across Ash's shoulder. She moaned slightly then stiffened as the voice came through the intercom.

"This is Citadel Security. We have a search and seizure warrant. Open up immediately."

"What. The. Hell?" the Skipper muttered as he sat up. Pulling his pants up over his hips, Shepard turned back to Ashley and just stopped, open mouthed.

"What is it?" she asked.

Shepard looked at her, the way the sheet was pooled around her waist, the way her hair was in disarray around her face, the way her eyes looked back at him. "You look more beautiful right now than I've ever seen you," he said, voice barely above a whisper.

Ash chuckled, crossed her arms behind her head and pushed out her chest.  
"Oh babe, don't _do_ that to me!"

"You better get the door, sweetheart. I'd hate for C-Sec to bust in and find us like this."

Shepard pulled on his shirt and went to the door.

The door hissed open, revealing a man who very obviously had just come off an extremely gratifying encounter of the sexual kind and Bethany grinned as he gaped at her in shock.

"Beth?" Augustus asked, head craning around, as though looking for a tactical squad of C-Sec agents.

"You were expecting somebody else?" his sister replied with an air of innocence. "Did I _interrupt_ something?"

"Beth?" Augustus asked again, eyes blinking in confusion.

"Christ, Augie, has all that sex fried your brain? Yes, it's your older sister come to surprise you! Surprise!"

As Shepard stepped forward and awkwardly hugged his sister, a little voice way back in his mind whispered _What trouble has she gotten into this time?_

Bethany returned the hug and planted a quick kiss on her brother's forehead. "You gonna let me in?"

Something wasn't right, Ashley decided as she rose from the bed and dressed hurriedly. C-Sec? A search warrant? She cocked her head to one side but heard no sounds of their furniture being turned over or the couch cushions being ripped open. She just heard low voices. One belonged to the Skipper. The other sounded like a woman's.

Concerned, Williams left the bedroom and arrived in the living room just in time to witness a woman whom she didn't know embracing her man. Embracing her man and _kissing him_. On the forehead yes but still, a kiss was a kiss and Ashley Williams suddenly realised that she was, indeed, the jealous type. Fists clenched, she strode towards the pair in the doorway.  
"What the _hell_ is going on?" she barked, employing the same parade-ground tone that could and did turn cadets' knees to jelly. The Skipper jerked as though somebody had rammed a pool cue up his butt. The woman merely patted the Skipper's shoulder in a fashion that suggested long familiarity and smiled at her.

"Get your hands off my man!" Ash snarled.

The newcomer smiled, "Easy honey. Much as I love my brother, incest I don't do."  
Ash suddenly felt as though she'd been suckered punched. "Brother?" her voice came in a strangled whisper. "You're his...sister?"  
"Unless the parentals have been lying to us both all these years and I'm really adopted." Bethany pushed past her speechless brother, not noticing as the wheels of her suitcase ran over his bare feet, eliciting a pained wince.

Bethany stood before the other woman who had the kind of stunned look a deer in the headlights might have. Right before it was hit by the oncoming truck. Releasing the suitcase, Bethany swept the other woman into a hug. Releasing her she said, "Bethany Amber-Louise Shepard. And I'm betting that little shit," she jerked a thumb back at her hapless brother, "Never mentioned me once, did he?"

Ashley gaped at the woman. _My God she's beautiful_ was the first thought to cross her mind, followed by _I've seen her somewhere before I just can't think where._

Rounding on the Skipper, Ashley managed to keep a tight leash on her rising temper. "You never thought to mention that you had a sister?"  
"Uh...it never came up?" Shepard replied, himself looking like a deer in the headlights.

"It _never came up? _Hello! Remember that time you caught me listening to vidmail from home and I told you all about my sisters?"  
"Yes?" Shepard said, chewing his lip. She was leading him into a trap but he wasn't sure how to get out of it. What _was_ Beth doing here? Was she in trouble with the law? Again?

Ash crossed her arms over her chest. "Any normal person would have said, _oh I also have a sister!_"  
"Oh, right," Shepard said this as though only just now coming to this conclusion.

Bethany surprised them both by laughing aloud. "God, do I know how to make an entrance or what?"

Walking towards the leather couch, Bethany removed her cigarette pack and lighter. She sighed as she kicked off her boots and sat down.  
"Hey, this is a non-smoking apartment," her brother protested as she lit up.

"Not any more it isn't," Bethany answered, blowing smoke towards the ceiling. She cast back and forth for something to tap the ashes into. "Gonna need an ashtray."  
"There are no ashtrays because this is a _non-smoking apartment_," Augie ground out. God, she'd been in the apartment not ten minutes and already she was driving him up the wall!  
"You better find something before I start dropping ash all over your nice rug," Bethany rubbed her foot back and forth across the cream-coloured floor covering, "Or butt out on your nice coffee table. Then bye-bye goes your security deposit."

Bethany smiled at her brother's expression. She could actually hear the minute squeaking as his teeth ground together. Walking rapidly, he disappeared into what Bethany figured was the kitchen. "Don't let her drop ash on anything," he called back.

Williams sat beside the Skipper's sister, _sister!_, eyeing her carefully. The woman's face was definitely familiar. "Have I seen you in the vids maybe?" she finally asked.

Bethany exhaled more smoke as she replied, "Possibly. You familiar with Sweet Vixen cosmetics?"  
Ashley could actually hear the penny drop, _clink!_ "Oh my God! My sisters love that stuff! _You're _the Sweet Vixen vixen?" Excitedly, she grabbed a holomag from the coffee table, flipped through it until she found the appropriate page and turned it so Bethany could see. "That's you?"

The advertisement in the glossy magazine featured Bethany looking over her shoulder, gazing out at the reader and wearing a look that all but screamed _I want to take you right here right now._ In the image, her lips, painted crimson were slightly parted and luminous green eyes radiated sensuality. The ad copy read Sweet Vixen Cosmetics - Free Your Inner Vixen.  
"Yeah. Christ, look at the airbrushing. They made me look like a fuckin' blow up doll!"

Before Ashley could frame a reply, Shepard returned holding a small earthenware bowl. This he set down on the coffee table before his sister who immediately tapped ash into it.

"Thanks, Augie. You should sit down. We have things to discuss."

Augustus sat in the arm chair opposite the couch. "What kinds of things? Are you in trouble with the law again? Last time you showed up unannounced, it was to borrow five thousand credits because a loan shark was threatening to break your kneecaps."  
"He wasn't _threatening_ to break my kneecaps, Augie. He was going to break my kneecaps and I quite like my kneecaps, I'm kinda attached to them. But no, I'm not here to ask for money."

Suddenly the thought that perhaps she should play hostess popped into her mind and Ashley asked, "Would you like something to drink?"  
"We have herbal tea," Shepard said brightly.

"Got any scotch?" Bethany asked. _Herbal tea? Please!_

"Isn't it a little early in the day for you to be drinking?" Shepard asked.

"Isn't it a little early in the day for you two," Bethany pointed to her brother and his girlfriend, "to be screwing each other's brains out?"

As Augustus' eyes widened in shock, Bethany added, "Right, excuse me. You don't _screw_. You _make love."_

"Beth," Shepard's voice was low and decidedly unfriendly. Bethany raised her hands palm out in a placating gesture. "I'm sorry OK? Look, I didn't come here to make trouble. I came because I need help."  
"What a surprise," Augustus said dryly.

"Don't give me that. Anyway, it's not really me who's going to need help. It's a bunch of scientists somewhere in the Hades Gamma cluster."  
"Huh?" Williams said. She'd forgotten all about getting their guest something.

"Here's the thing," Bethany began, patting herself down. "Damn it! I'm outta cigarettes!"

"I thought you were going to quit smoking?" Augustus asked.

"No _you_ said I was going to quit smoking. I just smiled and nodded to make you stop talking. Anyway, I've been having these dreams-"  
Shepard cut her off, saying, "Oh not that again! Remember when I turned 21 and you convinced our parents to cancel the party because you were utterly _convinced_ that something terrible would happen?"  
"Yeah?"  
"And in the end nothing happened!"

"That's because we cancelled the party. If we had gone ahead with it, none of us would be here now," Bethany said this with a calm certainty that made Ashley sit up a little straighter.

"I missed out on a party and we ended up sitting around all night playing gin rummy with Grandma Shepard!"  
"That doesn't sound so bad," Williams put in.

"You're still sore about that party?" Bethany asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Hang on," Williams interrupted, "You said something about dreams before?"  
"Don't get her started," Augustus answered.

"Don't talk over your girlfriend, that's not nice," Bethany replied, hooking one leg over the other. "But yeah, I have what you might call premonitions sometimes. Ever since the...accident."  
"Oh God," Augustus muttered.  
Ashley turned her body to more fully face the Skipper's older sister. "Accident? What happened? I mean, if you want to talk about it?"

Bethany blew out a breath, chewed her lower lip. She really needed a cigarette. "When I was seventeen, I was attending high school on Arcturus station and the school organised a field-trip to the Luna settlement, visit the historic site where man first walked on the moon. The trip went flawlessly. The take off from Arcturus was fine, the trip through the mass relay was fine, the descent down to the Luna colony was fine. The _landing_, that wasn't so fine."  
Ashley wondered how Bethany's voice could be so calm. "Something went wrong with the landing sequence, the ship crashed," Bethany stated.

She supposed relating the events of half a lifetime ago should have caused her voice to shake with some emotion but in all honesty, she couldn't recall the actual incident herself. She only knew what others had told her and what had been reported on the vids. It was like the crash had happened to another girl who just happened to look like her was all.

"There were thirty-two students on that ship, two teachers to keep the kids in line plus the crew. Five of us survived."  
"Oh my God," Ash murmured, placing a tentative hand on the older woman's shoulder. Shepard just closed his eyes, feeling them tear up.

"I was pretty badly banged up, was in a coma for six months. After I woke up, it took a long while before I was able to walk and talk again."  
"No," Ashley shook her head back and forth as though to negate her words. The hand on Bethany's shoulder squeezed gently.

"It's OK. I don't remember a thing about it. Doctors said at the time that I had some kind of neurological impairment and they did all kinds of scans but there was nothing to be done about it. I just had to come out of it in my own time. Eventually I did. Whatever happened triggered something in my mind - ever since I've had dreams, visions whatever. They come and go. Sometimes I'll go for months without having one and I'll think _maybe I'm finally rid of them_. Then I have another one." Now her voice did shake slightly and the weight of all the things she'd witnessed in her sleep combined with her tiredness was enough to break the dam and she collapsed against Ashley, crying.

Williams held her, rubbing her back with one hand and motioning frantically at the Skipper with the other. Shepard quickly crossed to his sister and held her close, muttering soothingly into her ear, "Hey, it'll be OK. Whatever's wrong, we'll fix it together, OK?"  
Bethany pushed away from him, green eyes streaming with tears and a look of utter fury on her face. "How can we _fix it_ when you don't even _believe in my visions? _Fucking hell, Augustus, I came all the way here because you're the only person I know who even has a chance of stopping whatever's going on and you won't believe me! Do you know how that feels?"

Angry at herself, Bethany swiped the tears from her eyes. She hated it when she cried. Hated the feeling of being helpless in front of people. Hated even more the way crying made her mascara run.

"Actually I do," Shepard said quietly. And, although it was completely wrong of him to do it - she was a civilian - he found himself relating the story of how visions from a certain Prothean beacon had downloaded themselves into his mind and how the Council had refused to take him seriously until it was almost too late.

"So yeah, I understand how you feel and I'm sorry I never took you seriously before now," he finished.

Bethany sniffled, blew her nose on a crumpled tissue pulled from her jacket pocket. "This is one of those rare moments when I'm glad our mother had a second child."

Sitting back on the couch, Bethany propped her bare feet on the coffee table. Her brother made a disapproving sound. Bethany smiled. "I'm gonna take a shower. Is it OK if I crash here?"  
"Of course," her brother answered. "You'll have to sleep on the couch though."  
"And here's me thinking you'd give up your nice king-sized bed for your sister."  
"The same king-size bed where the Skipper and I have been screwing our brains out?" Ash asked sweetly.

"Eeww. Just ewww."

A/N: You know that old Stephen King Story _The Dead Zone_ where protagonist Johnny Smith wakes from a coma able to see the future? That totally didn't influence me, at _all_. :)


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Probably should have mentioned this before but any references to films and TV shows contained herein are obviously the property of the respective companies and blah de blah legal mumbo jumbo.  


* * *

3. Primal Scream

While Bethany showered, Shepard and Williams talked quietly about what they should do.

"We're still on leave, you know?" Shepard pointed out.

Williams rolled her eyes and blew out an exasperated breath. "Come on, Skipper! She's your sister, you can't just tell her _sorry, we're on holiday at the moment, come back later._ And besides...don't you miss the action?"  
"Are you serious?" Shepard sat back, a little surprised. He rather liked all this free time with his lady-friend with no calls from Admiral Hackett ordering his crew out to the middle of deep space to solve some problem or other. Problems that usually resulted in him being forced to fight off about a hundred geth or chasing around some barren planet looking for a missing data module. And monkeys.

"Look," Williams went on, snuggling up to him as though she were trying to burrow into his chest, "I'm absolutely _loving _our living arrangements but we're soldiers. We signed on to serve and defend, fight the good fight and all that stuff they go on about in recruitment vids. And it's your _sister_. If one of my sisters suddenly arrived needing my help, I'd drop everything for them in an instant. Well everything except you," she whispered, gently trailing a finger along his neck, sending a thrill through him.

"You're right. It's just weird, Beth showing up like this. She's normally so independent and..."  
"Well, I had to wait almost thirty years but I finally get an honest to god compliment out of you. I'm shocked and amazed, Augustus, I truly am," Bethany said as she re-entered the living room, towelling dry her hair. She was clad in another pair of jeans and a Hello Kitty blouse.

Bethany pulled out a chair from the dining table and positioned it so she could sit opposite the loved-up couple on the couch. Williams pulled away from the Skipper and they both sat up straight.

"So, how was your flight?" Augie asked, figuring it may be best to ease into whatever issue had sent Bethany over.

"Horrendous," she replied. "First, I had to queue up at the spaceport for what felt like hours _then _I found myself sandwiched between this salarian who simply would not stop talking and this hanar who also would not stop talking."  
"What about?" Wiliams asked, curious.

"The Enkindlers. Hanar are weird. With all that talk about _this one, that one_ and _the other_, half the time I don't even know what they're referring to."  
Shepard nodded in understanding. "But besides that, things weren't so bad?"

Bethany snorted. "You know what they do to people who light up on ships?"  
"You didn't.." her brother trailed off. He didn't know why he was so surprised but he thought that even his sister could resist the urge to smoke on a transport.

"So I'm sitting in the bathroom on the ship, committing suicide by cigarette, when this alarm goes off and the next thing I know, I'm at C-Sec, paying a five hundred credit fine."  
"Ouch," Ash said in sympathy.

"Why don't you quit smoking?" Augie almost pleaded.

Bethany crossed her arms over her chest. "Quitting is for quitters."  
"That makes less than no sense," her brother retorted.

Bethany waved a hand in irritation, "Look, little brother. Life is fatal in a hundred percent of cases. I read in the news just the other day that, according to _scientists_," and she injected the word with such scorn that Shepard couldn't help but smile, "drinking tea above a certain temperature increases your risks of developing throat cancer. Eating too much red meat increases the risks of cancer, drinking too much alcohol increases chances of something else. After a while, I stopped reading, lit up, put a steak on the grill and cracked open a nice bottle of red because, you know what? We're all of us dead no matter what we do. I could quit smoking and be hit by a bus tomorrow!"

Bethany inhaled deeply as her tirade tapered off. "And anyway, in _your_ line of work, you're a lot more likely to die horribly than I am. Just in case you forgot that. Hey, Ash," she addressed Williams.

"Yeah?"  
"How many times has Augie been almost killed lately? You can tell me, us Shepards are used to that sort of thing."  
"Well there was that one time on Feros when a thorian creeper spewed ick all over him..."  
"Sounds like great fun!" Bethany exclaimed with wide-eyed mock enthusiasm. "So what the fuck's thorian when it's at home?"  
Shepard rubbed a hand over his eyes, feeling a sister-induced headache coming on. "Beth, why do you swear so much?"  
"Oh please! You serve in the Navy! The Navy, which is like the last bastion of foul-mouthed people!"

Ashley blinked. She tried to remember the last time she'd heard the Skipper say a four letter word stronger than damn. She seemed to recall him muttering _bloody hell_ on one occasion but that might have been her imagination.

"It's...it's not lady-like," Shepard finally replied, looking away from his sister as though afraid of seeing her reaction.

"Not..lady-like? Oh my God!"

"You should try it, some time," Shepard insisted. "You might even like to try wearing a dress."  
Bethany laughed, head tipped back so that her hair fell over the chair back. Straightening up, she answered, "Augie, I wear dresses all the time - ball gowns, little black cocktail numbers, strapless little things, you name it, I've worn it. Dresses are like my uniform these days."  
Shepard cocked his head to one side.  
"Didn't I tell you? I'm an escort now!"

Shepard's mouth dropped open. "I...you..." he trailed off, shocked. Bethany had done some wild and crazy things before but _this?_ An _escort?_ His sister, his _sister?_ Finally he managed a reply. "I'm not sure how I feel about the idea of men paying you to...you know."  
Bethany looked as though he'd just slapped her. "You need to open your mind, little brother. I said _escort_ not _call girl_. There's a difference. It's subtle, but it's there."

Shepard slumped back in relief. "Oh God, I thought..."  
"So what if she was?" Ashley put in, annoyed by the Skipper's attitude. Sure, it wasn't the kind of career choice she'd want for one of her sisters but if Sarah told her she was a working girl, Ashley wouldn't slam the door in her face.

"Ashley! She's my sister! When I think about strange men doing...things."

Bethany leaned forward, placing a hand on her brother's knee. "Your concern for my welfare is sweet, Augie, it really is. But I know what I'm doing. All the clients are screened eight ways from Sunday for potential problems. It's all perfectly safe. And you remember what happened to the last guy who got fresh with me."  
Shepard nodded. He remembered. Witnesses to the events reported that Bethany had slammed the guy's head into a bar a few times. And that was _after_ she'd slammed her fist into his nose.

She'd done a little time for that one. The elder Shepards had been less than impressed.

Bethany waved a hand in an airy fashion and said, "But I think we have more pressing matters to deal with."  
"Your...visions, right," her brother replied.

"Yes, dear, my _visions_. You know, in some ancient cultures on Earth, a woman in my situation would have been venerated for her wisdom and insight into the future. I'm lucky I haven't been committed and wearing a strait jacket."  
Shepard shifted on the couch. Ashley leaned her head on his shoulder.

"So, what have you been seeing?" the Commander asked.  
"There's a research installation somewhere in the Hades Gamma cluster," Bethany began.

"How do you know where it is?" Ash put in.

"I just do. I can't explain how this works, it just does. Turns out being comatose for six months does strange things to a person's brain. Who'da thunk it?" sarcasm all but dripped from Bethany's reply.

"Beth, we're just trying to understand, here," Augie protested.

Bethany blew out an exasperated breath. "I'm sorry, OK?"  
Ash nodded as she sat upright, "It's OK."  
"Alright. So there's this research installation in deep space, corner of no and where. There's been, or there's going to be a containment breach," Bethany held up a hand to forestall the inevitable question, "I don't know when or how. Could be it's already happened and I wasted a trip. Uh, no offence."

Shepard and Ashley both shrugged.

"Aw, matching gestures and everything. That's cute," Bethany chuckled. "These scientists are studying some form of alien...bug...thing."  
Shepard and Ash exchanged knowing, worried glances. _Bugs_ the glances seemed to say.

"What do these bugs look like?" Shepard asked, feeling a cold dread settle in his stomach.

"Imagine if the bugs from _Aliens_ and the bugs from _Starship Troopers_ got together and had wild crazy sex. The offspring of their union might look something like this," Bethany picked up her handbag from where she'd left if beside the coffee table and removed a sheet of paper from a sketch pad, folded into quarters.

"I drew you a picture," she smirked and handed it to her brother.

Shepard unfolded the sheet, silently praying _please don't be rachni, please don't be rachni, please don't be..._

"Ah crap," he muttered as he stared down at the pencil drawing of a rachni soldier. He passed the sketch to Ash. "Aw hell!" she breathed.

Bethany sat forward in her seat, "What? What is it?"

"Rachni," Augustus answered, voice flat.  
"Get the _fuck _out! Rachni have been extinct for two thousand years! The krogan exterminated them!"

"Seems like some people found some old eggs and hatched them," Shepard answered.

Bethany stood up and headed towards the kitchen. "Will you excuse me for a moment?"

Shepard and Ashley sat, studying the drawing. They jerked forward as a loud metallic clang rang out from the kitchen, along with a shriek that couldn't possibly come from any human throat.

"Uh, do you think you should go and check on her?" Ash asked as the scream died away.

"No, no I think I'll stay here, thank you very much."

Bethany stalked back into the living room, breathing deeply through her nose, a slightly mad look in her eyes. "You're gonna need a new frying pan. I kinda smashed it into wall and the handle came off. Sorry."

"That was you? That...scream?" Shepard asked nervously.

Bethany seated herself before replying, long legs crossed primly at the ankles before replying. "Primal scream. Supposed to let out all the anger so it can't build up and cause stress. You know what? I actually do feel better. So," she went on as though she hadn't just killed her brother's frying pan and probably freaked out the neighbours, "What are we going to do about this?" she pointed at the drawing still in Shepard's lap.

"Have you got anything else from your dreams that might help out?"

"A name. Doctor Savrashi. Lead science nerd. Christabel, lab technician. I bet she gets a lot of inappropriate attention." Bethany used her hands to make an hourglass figure. "Tits and ass, like you wouldn't believe."

"Savrashi?" Shepard sat back, considering. That name was familiar.

"Yeah, you know him?"  
"Possibly. I need to check on something. I'll be a few minutes." As the Spectre rose to his feet, he gave his sister a stern look. "Try not to break anything else while I'm gone."

Bethany tossed him a mock salute, "Sir, yes sir!" she barked.

Shepard sat at the small desk in the bedroom and powered up the console. Once the OS loaded, he navigated to SpecNet, a massive database of information available only to Spectres. Until some pimply faced fifteen year old nerd hacked the system, resulting in ultra-top secret data ending up all over the extranet. Along with baby pictures of Saren Arterius. The general consensus was that he had been one hell of an ugly baby.

**Please Enter Login Name and Password**

**Shepard, A  
******************************************************

By the time he'd finished entering his admittedly long password, full of alphanumeric characters and the odd !, Shepard's fingers were aching.

**Welcome Spectre Shepard**

**Thought of the Day: If you try to fail and succeed, which have you accomplished?**

"Now that, that's an interesting one," he thought aloud. He entered a few commands and brought up a dialogue box allowing him to enter various search terms.

**Savrashi, rachni, Hades Gamma**

Shepard sat back in his chair, watching the little hourglass icon. Even after all these centuries, Microsoft was _still _in the business. The cryogenically preserved head of Bill Gates would be proud, he decided.

After a few moments, a number of intelligence reports submitted by Spectres in the field and gathered by old fashioned hacking and corporate espionage appeared.

Shepard quickly scanned several reports and they confirmed what he'd already suspected - Savrashi had worked previously for Binary Helix on Noveria and had been involved in the project to breed rachni. When that ended disastrously, he'd disappeared and had now been linked to a science project in the Hades Gamma cluster. Beyond that, intelligence was limited.

Shepard sighed and shut down the console. His sister had been right. He hated it when she was right.

When Shepard returned from his research, Bethany and Ash were sitting close together, whispering and giggling like girls attending a sleepover. Ominously, thought Shepard, they immediately stopped as soon as they noticed him. That could not bode well.

"What were you two whispering about?" he tried to sound casual, nonchalant. Failed miserably.

Bethany smirked nastily, "Secret women's business," she said and both women laughed. Oh yes, whatever they were talking about couldn't possibly be good.

"So, what'd you find out?" Ashley asked.

"Well, it seems Doctor Savrashi was involved with things on Noveria and now he's set up shop elsewhere," the Skipper explained  
"Great," Bethany rubbed her hands together, "When do we leave?"  
"Ashley and _I_," Shepard emphasised, "Will be leaving as soon as I can assemble the crew. You're staying here."  
Ashley didn't know the Skipper's sister very well, them only having just met but even Ash could tell that Bethany wouldn't accept this lying down. Bethany stood up and faced her brother.  
"I'm coming with you," she said quietly.

"No, you're not."  
"Yes, I am!"  
"Are not."  
"Are too."  
"Are _not!"  
_"Are _too!"_

Ashley suppressed a giggle at the sight before her - brother and sister standing with faces mere inches from one another, arguing like small children. It reminded her of the arguments she had with her own sisters and she smiled. Though half a head shorter than her brother, Bethany refused to back down.

"Uh guys?" Ash said.

They both wheeled to face her, identical expressions of ire on their faces, "What?!" they snapped at the same time.

Ash said nothing.

Taking advantage of the momentary pause in the argument, Bethany pressed on, "Either you let me come along or I'll go down into the Wards, find the dingiest, most down-market dive I can, and you _know _I'll be able to find a doozy and put the word out that I'm looking to hire a ship and crew for a little job."  
"You wouldn't," Augustus countered.

"I would. Maybe I'll get lucky and find my very own _Serenity_ with a ragtag team of misfits to go with it."

Her brother cocked his head to one side and Bethany rolled her eyes. He was _so _ignorant of the classics, that boy. "_Serenity, Firefly? _Hello! Joss Whedon, anybody?"

Ignoring her seemingly irrelevant tangent, Shepard pressed on, "It's against regulations."  
Bethany laughed, "This from the man who's been banging his Gunnery Chief! Uh, no offense, Ash. There's regs against that kind of thing, remember?"

Shepard's mouth opened and closed helplessly. Bethany looked smug and victorious. She had him, she knew it.

"You're a civilian!" Shepard spoke in triumph. There, let her get past that!  
"I was a Marine for three years!" she shot back, infuriated.

"You were kicked out after you assaulted a superior officer!"  
"The LT totally had it coming!"

Williams leaned forward in interest. "Really? What happened?"  
"You don't want to know," Shepard said firmly.

"If I didn't want to know, I wouldn't have asked," Ash hissed in annoyance before turning to Bethany. "I mean, if you want to talk about it?"  
"Oh, I'd love to!"

---

Earth, 2174

Private First Class Shepard, B, Serial Number 789453-A had seen some real holes during her three years in the 99th Infantry - stinking hot jungles, arid deserts, lifeless planetoids but this bar was worse than all of them put together. About the only mark in the bar's favour was the fact that, so far at least, nobody had tried to shoot at her. Beyond that though...

The building's air-conditioner appeared to be in a state of not-workingness and, with the temperature spiking at 35 degrees Celsius and the humidity up around 80 percent, everybody in the bar was sweating copiously. Bethany eyed the old mercury thermometer mounted behind the bar, next to a calendar displaying Miss July's assets. Miss July's chestworks were so large and unwieldy looking that the poor lass probably needed scaffolding rather than a bra to provide adequate support.

Even as Bethany watched, the mercury rose just a touch higher.

The smell of so many sweaty, and in the cases of the locals, unwashed bodies, hung in the air like a miasma. A miasma that threatened to make Shepard gag if she inhaled too deeply.

Shepard sat on a bar stool, the metal pole pitted and corroded, the faux red leather seat riddled with cracks. PFC Shepard's chin was cupped in her left hand, elbow propped on the bar top. A bead of perspiration rolled along the bridge of her nose, balanced precariously on the tip for a moment before splashing down beneath her face. She shifted uncomfortably, attempting to relieve the itch between her shoulder blades. Her fatigues were stuck to her skin with her own sweat and she was almost certain some kind of fungal infection was incubating back there.

"Earth, cradle of humanity," she muttered to nobody in particular and laughed sourly, "Cradle of filth, more like."

Shepard could never understand the blinding loyalty a person could attach to any one place, having spent much of her life being shuttled from station to station as her parents' postings changed. Yet, she knew, if she made the mistake of disrespecting somebody's homeworld, they wouldn't react well at all.

"Oi! What'd you say about my planet? I'll 'ave you, I will! You an' me, outside, roight now!"

Then, the usual short, sharp exchange that resulted in the drunk local yokel's head connecting with the ground as his drunken friends looked on.

"Of all the places on this godforsaken rock the LT could have taken us to for shore leave, he had to choose this one," Shepard said.

Seated on a stool beside her, PFC O'Brien replied, "Hey, at least the beer's cheap!" and polished off his drink.

"The beer's cheap because it's brewed from fermented donkey piss, O'Brien," Shepard shot back, irritated.

O'Brien laughed and almost choked on a mouthful of beer. After managing to breathe easy again, he replied, "Eloquence, thy name is Shepard."

Shepard ignored him. Her own drink sat before her, mostly untouched. It was some stupid girly cocktail bought for her by Corporal Kristy Moore.

Corporal Kristy was the unit's token lesbian and had been hitting on every girl in the unit in alphabetical order so it taken her a little while to work her way down to Shepard. Shepard had let her buy the drink, partly out of sympathy, because Corporal Kristy had been rejected by everybody else in the 99th and partly because a free drink was a free drink.

Corporal Kristy herself lay passed out beneath the pool table, one booted foot sticking out, presenting a traffic hazard to anybody passing by.

Shepard looked up as the LT himself sat down on a vacant stool to her right. She made to stand at attention but he waved her off. "At ease, Marine."  
Shepard slumped back into her previous state of semi-drunk boredom. The itching was getting worse. From the corner of her right eye, she saw the LT, Michael Blake, giving her a good leer and sighed. Shepard was the prettiest girl in the unit. That wasn't her being conceited, it was a simple fact. Even with her hair cut regulation short, without a skerrick of makeup and her fatigues plastered to her skin, she was still an object of everybody's desire.

To her left, O'Brien got up from his stool, weaving from side to side and headed out, "This scene's gettin' old, man," he said as he left. Shepard nodded. From the corner of her eye, she saw the LT's leer deepen.

The LT leaned closer towards her, "Buy you a drink?" he asked, voice carrying all kinds of suggestive undertones.

Shepard pointed to her girly cocktail, "I'm good, LT."  
"That ain't a drink, Shepard. Lemme buy you a _real_ drink."

Before she could reply, maybe tell him to fuck off, Sir, the LT slid off his stool and stepped in close behind her. The hair on the back of her neck stirred.

The LT crowded in behind her and she leaned forward on the stool, trying to put some space between them. "Come on Shepard, whatsa matter?"

The LT's right hand drifted down until it was hovering mere inches from Shepard's butt. Then the hand settled oh so gently on her rump. And squeezed.

Before she could do more than scowl at this intrusion into her personal space, Shepard felt the LT's _other hand_ slide inside the top of her fatigues, and settle on her left breast. Worse, due to the ungodly heat and humidity, she'd chosen today of all days to not wear a bra.

A kind of red mist seemed to settle over PFC Shepard's vision and she was suddenly acutely aware of the LT's breath on the back of her neck. This was too much. There she was, minding her own business in a bar, nursing her girly cocktail and then her platoon leader up and starts groping her tits.

"Get your hands _off_ me!" Shepard hissed.

The LT leaned in close to her face, hands _still_ clutching her parts and whispered into her ear, the words arriving amidst a wave of whisky breath, "I want to take you right here, right now."

PFC Shepard snapped. It was not the quiet, non-violent snap she would experience whilst Citadel-bound a decade later. She straightened up, spine crackling, yanked the LT's hand from under her top, surged upright and slammed her right fist into his nose with enough force to break both his nose and one of her knuckles.

She felt the knuckle go with a dull _pop_. Her cry of pained surprise _oh! _was swallowed by the LT's much louder roar of pain as he stumbled away from her, blood spurting from his nose.

"You bitch! You broke my dose!"

_And I ain't done with you yet, bucko_ she thought as the red mist deepened. Shepard stepped behind him, ignoring the protests of the bartender - "Hey! You wanna fight, do it in the cage!" - and there was indeed a large metal cage, empty at present where people could participate in bare-knuckle cage matches.

Grabbing the back of the LT's neck, Shepard slammed him face-first into the bar top three times _thud! thud! thud!_ each impact causing alcohol to spill down the sides of the cocktail glass.

Shepard shoved the battered officer away from her and stood back, hands on hips. The LT wavered on his feet for several seconds before falling to the grimy floor.

"Maybe next time you'll listen when a girl tells you to take your hands off her," she said, addressing the room at large.

The locals roared with drunken laughter.

"Shepard, you're like my hero," a woman's voice slurred from behind her. Shepard turned to see Corporal Kristy looking up at her from her place on the floor.

Ignoring her, Shepard made for the exit only to find her way barred by a pair of stern-faced military police who'd shown up from somewhere. Shepard cocked her head back the way she'd come, "He's back there."

Instead of collecting the LT, the MPs cuffed her and led her away.

---

"Wow..." Ashley said, voice coloured with admiration. "So you just laid out your LT?"  
"Wouldn't you? Imagine you're sitting there minding your own business and some guy started feeling you up."  
Ashley nodded in sympathy, "And they discharged you for that?"  
Bethany shrugged. "That and a few other things. But mainly that." Bethany waved her hand as though chasing away flies, "Anyway, the point is, I have military experience and handling an assault rifle is a lot like having sex. You never forget how to do it."

"You're still a civilian," her brother ground out.

"Fine, think about this then: my taxes pay your salaries," Bethany pointed at them both, "So technically, I own both your asses."  
"That's a totally specious argument," the Commander shot back.

"Why, thank you!" Bethany smiled sunnily.

"The answer is still no," Augustus persisted.

Bethany looked at Ashley, "Is he always like this?"  
Williams shrugged, "Normally if he won't do what I want, I just threaten to cut off the supply of nookie and he folds like _that,_" she said, snapping her fingers.

Bethany went towards the door, grabbing her suitcase as she went.

"Where are you going?" her brother demanded.

"Out to find my very own _Serenity_. Or you could just let me come along. Your choice." She stood by the door, watching her brother's jaw working furiously as he considered whether she'd actually hire a mercenary band and go off on her own. Eventually, he was forced to concede that yes, his sister _was_ just crazy enough to do as she threatened.

"Fine," Shepard said, throwing his hands up in exasperation. "You can come but I'm in charge and you do as _I say!"_

"Oooh, you're so _hot _when you get all commanding like that. Isn't he, Ash? If I weren't related to him...hooo boy!"

Shepard just glared at her, hands on hips. Bethany returned to her chair, smiling so widely her face began to ache. Unable to resist gloating, she licked her right index finger and drew an imaginary 1 in the air. "Bethany, one, Augie, zero."

Shepard sighed at his sister's theatrics. She was almost thirty-five, for godsake, couldn't she be more...more...grown-up? Was that too much to ask? "I need some time to assemble the crew. Most of them will be on leave so we'll have to work with a skeleton crew."  
Ash nodded. "But really, all we need is a helmsman, navigator and a few engineers to look after the systems. Heck, ask Tali along, she's practically an entire engineering team herself."

"Tali?" Bethany asked. She was beginning to feel as though she'd entered a movie screening half-way through and didn't know who the characters were yet.

"Tali'Zorah nar Rayya. She's a quarian," Williams explained as though it should be obvious how a quarian ended up on an Alliance vessel. Beth just smiled and nodded as though she was all across the situation.

Shepard eyed his sister, trying, without words to impress upon her the need to straighten up and fly right. "I'll make some calls. Why don't you lie down for a while? The trip must have tired you out." For a wonder, his sister nodded agreeably.  
"I'll get some spare sheets," Williams said and left them to it.

Bethany eyed the couch uneasily. Partly because she wondered just how many times her brother and his girlfriend had started out snuggling on the couch only to wind up having messy sex all over the cushions and partly because she was dreading the dreams that were almost inevitable. Sighing, she peeled back the sheet, curled herself up on the couch and pounded the pillow until it was mostly comfortable beneath her head.

Her eyes slipped closed and almost before she was aware of it, she was asleep. And surprise _surprise_ she was seeing things again. Only this time, things were different.

---

Outskirts of Super-Secret Science Lab, The Ass-End of Space

"Man, could this assignment _be_ any more dull?" Jeffrey Parker griped to Sarah Daniels as they walked the perimeter of the lab complex. "Guarding a bunch of nerds and lab-geeks. What's gonna happen all the way out here in the ass-end of space anyway?"

Sarah didn't bother looking around at Parker as she replied, "Last time you were bitching when we were dropped into a hot LZ and had to actually _work_ for your money and _now_ you're bitching because you're bored? Make up your mind!"

The male mercenary just shrugged and adjusted the grip on his rifle. Daniels had a point, he conceded. That last job had been hellish - small arms fire going off all around them and the occasional dull _crump _from heavy vehicle armament. This gig was a cakewalk by comparison. All they had to do was patrol and provide security for the eggheads and the pay was pretty good. There were even fringe benefits, Parker thought with a smirk. That lab tech Christabel - what a hottie. And unlike a lot of good looking women who considered themselves too good to associate with his ilk, she was actually quite approachable and even let him buy her a drink when he'd run into her whilst they were both off shift.

Parker rolled his head around, wincing as his vertebrae crackled and checked the mission timer on his HUD. Hell! Still an hour to go before -

"What's that?" Daniels' voice broke into his train of thought, and he looked up in the direction indicated by her pointing arm. The object descending through the sky ahead of their position had a vaguely insectile look to it. As it hurtled through the sky, a pair of whitish forms, looking for all the world like boulders dropped from it and slammed into the rocky ground several hundred metres away. The ship carried on overhead, making no sound in the asteroid's vacuum, and sped towards the main buildings.

"We better report in," he said.

"Geez, d'ya _think?"_ Sarah shot back. "This is Daniels reporting. We have visual on an unknown spacecraft making for the complex. It dropped a couple of..things. We're moving to investigate, over."  
By now, the couple of _things _had unfolded themselves into quadrupedal walkers standing tall against the horizon. Each walker was topped by an unmistakable blue-glowing flashlight head.

"Oh hell no!" Parker breathed. "Geth! They're bloody geth!"

"Command, Daniels! Report contact with geth! Repeat, we have contact with geth!"

A burst of ear-splitting static washed across the comm frequencies, cutting the pair off from any hope of reinforcement.

Parker and Daniels gaped open mouthed at the armatures for the briefest of moments before they were both annihilated in a blue-white flash.

---

As she tossed and turned, attempting to wake herself from the dream, the sheet wrapped itself ever tighter around Bethany until she resembled an Egyptian mummy - one who was the unfortunate victim of a cost cutting exercise and embalmed using only the minimum number of wrappings. Bethany rolled off the couch and landed heavily on the floor, head narrowly missing the coffee table.

"Uh," she grunted as air was forced from her lungs. Bethany blinked and attempted to rub the sleep from her eyes. Her right hand pressed firmly against her left hip, held in place by the sheet which seemed intent on slowly but surely squeezing the life from her like a boa constrictor.

Thrashing back and forth on the floor like a giant fish at the end of a line, Bethany managed to work herself free of the sheet and got to her feet.

She sat back on the couch, feeling the need to smoke burning like an ember inside her. Geth. What did geth have to do with a lab breeding rachni? Hadn't her brother and his crew laid the geth to waste? Bethany sighed and closed her eyes. She could easily picture some perverse assembly line stamping out more and more geth and those geth boarding insectile dropships and those dropships attacking human outposts at random. Why not? They were machines and they probably suffered from dodgy programming.

Leaning forward, Bethany picked up her watch from the coffee table. "This can't be right. I was only asleep for twenty minutes?"

"How'd you sleep?" Williams asked as she and Augustus entered the living area. Bethany looked over at them.

"Badly," she admitted. "OK, so answer me this: why would geth be interested in a lab complex studying rachni?"  
"Geth?" Augie asked. Ashley frowned and swore viciously.

"Yeah. Geth. Got any clues?"

The Commander paced back and forth, tapping a finger to his chin in thought. "Maybe they're still following their old programming from when they served Saren?"

"Or maybe these geth are working independently and just decided to kill a bunch of people for the hell of it?" Bethany ventured.

"Either way, this is something we need to look into," Augustus pronounced.

"So, where are we at with the crew?" Ash inquired.

"Most of them are still off the Citadel on leave but I was able to contact enough to crew the _Normandy_."

Bethany stood, bundled the sheet up, jamming it between two of the couch cushions and grabbed her bag. "I'm going out."  
"Where?"

Beth turned to her brother with mild amusement. "You remind me of dad, just now," she said "_Where are going? How long will be gone? Who are you meeting? Who's that boy?"_

Her brother shrugged. "Just try not to get into any more trouble? Please?"  
Bethany rolled her eyes. "I'm going out to buy some more cigarettes then I'm going to find a club or bar or something to wind down for a bit. OK? Or do you want to come and hold my hand and make sure I don't embarrass the family?"

"No, I need to stay here and organise some things."

"You should check out Chora's," Ashley advised her as she walked with her to the apartment door. "It's here in the Wards."

"What do they have there?" Beth enquired, hand on the door panel.  
Ashley shrugged, "Half-naked asari dancing girls, mostly."  
Bethany's lips twitched upwards. "Classy place."

A/N: That thing about hot tea increasing the risk of throat cancer? I actually read that in a newspaper recently. Apparently, these days, everything can kill you.


	4. Chapter 4

4. Drunken Spectacle

Chora's was turning out to be Bethany's kind of place: populated by a mostly male clientele too blitzed on various alcoholic beverages and illicit narcotics including but by no means limited to crack, smack, LSD, GBH, ecstasy, fantasy, ice, glue fumes and red sand to take much notice of much of anything beyond the semi-clad dancers.

This suited Bethany right down to the ground. The total lack of interest shown in her by the patrons was, in her view, the cat's pyjamas. During her younger days, while out clubbing with the girls, all eyes would invariably turn in her direction whenever she entered a bar or club. Then the wolf-whistles, catcalls and cries of Show Us Yer Tits! would begin. Bethany revelled in her new-found anonymity. This is awesome, she thought. This must be what being a wallflower felt like, and it felt great.

Settling herself at a vacant table awash with spilled beer that the overworked waitresses hadn't yet gotten around to mopping up, Bethany opened a fresh pack of cigarettes and tried mightily not to be revolted by the anti-smoking message printed on the packaging. The anti-smoking lobby had been resorting to ever more gruesome imagery in its efforts to convince people to stop committing suicide by cigarette. This particular packet bore full-colour images of, presumably, a lung cancer victim being autopsied, revealing, in puke-inducing detail the horrific degradation of the fellow's lungs. Ick, Beth thought as she lit up. Fully ick.

She got that smoking was an incredibly stupid thing for her to be doing but did they have to keep _going on_ about it? She wondered exactly how many billions of credits had been spent over the years trying to combat the problem. Irony was, if people actually heeded the advice of the various government-funded stop smoking campaigns and stopped smoking, the lack of revenue generated by the taxes on cigarettes would, in short order, bankrupt most star systems. Then governments would have no choice but to raise taxes to compensate. She and others like her would be healthier because they were no longer smoking but they'd also be flat broke because they were no longer smoking. It was enough to turn a person to drink. Bethany stuffed the offending packet with its imagery of diseased lungs back into her handbag and ordered a drink.

The drink arrived, courtesy of a frazzled-looking young human woman, wearing just enough material not to breach decency laws. Funny thing, that. Men came here specifically to ogle female flesh yet if the waitresses went about their business topless, some brain-fried idiot would invariably point a shaking finger and scream, "Oh my God! You can see her _nipples!"_

"Busy night?" Bethany asked as she accepted her drink. She gave the girl a generous tip, the poor thing was probably working in the place to put herself through nursing school or something.

"Like you wouldn't believe," the waitress replied, a bit breathlessly. She'd had to practically run from an attempt by a patron to pull her into his lap. Normally, she took such things in her stride. Except this particular fellow wasn't wearing his pants. And he'd been very happy to see her.

"There's some convention or other on so we have this whole hotel full of drunken _morons!_" she shouted the last word at somebody on the other side of the room before turning back to Bethany. "Coming down here and doing what drunken men do." The girl sighed and sat opposite Beth. She was supposed to be working but, right at that point, the thought of having to deal with another drunk talking into her cleavage as he ordered another drink was almost enough to make her cry. "Things could be worse, I suppose," she said at length.

Bethany raised an eyebrow. "Worse how?"

The waitress raised a slender arm and pointed at the men practically drooling over the dancers. "At least I don't have those guys trying to paw me and shove credits into my underwear. Jesus!" she shook her head. "Asari are supposed to be all wise and intelligent and be able to mediate issues peacefully yet _look_ at them!"  
Bethany looked. It was kinda hard not to. One of the blue-skinned aliens in particular had her attention. The dancer was practically making love to herself with her hands. On stage. In front of who knew how many people. Bethany slammed back her drink and replaced the glass with slightly unsteady hands. She must've been slightly more drunk than she'd realised because watching that asari, she felt slightly turned on. "Damn," she said, part in admiration and part in anger at herself.

"Yeah," the waitress nodded agreement then, nodding at Bethany's cigarette, said, "Can I have a smoke?"  
Bethany offered the pack, lit the cigarette with her Zippo. The girl sighed, leaned back in her seat and blew a smoke ring at the ceiling. "I better be going. The new owner's a real slave-driver, the bitch."

"New owner? She buy the place up?"  
"Nah," the waitress said as she stood up to leave. She took another lungful of smoke before replying, "Fist got himself whacked a while back, and he owed this woman money so she just took over the place."

Before the woman left, Bethany asked for another drink. Looking back, that may not have been the best decision she could have made.

People tend to do silly things whilst in the grip of the demon drink. Some became convinced, suddenly and all at once that they possessed magical vocal skills and proceeded to murder their way through any number of classic hits via the Karaoke machine. Others, convinced they were the greatest lover in the known galaxy, proceeded to hit on everything bearing a pulse, much to the disgust of the objects of their drunken desire.

Others, like Bethany, suddenly became convinced they could do a much better job of gyrating semi-naked than the dancers and proceeded to demonstrate with wild abandon.

---

"...and in news just to hand, an excess of alcohol is believed to be responsible for a female human, thought to be the elder sister of the Spectre Commander Shepard-"  
"Skipper, Skipper! Have a look at this!" Ashley exclaimed, pointing at their apartment vidscreen. As Shepard entered the living room from the kitchen, Ashley aimed the remote and raised the volume.  
"-dancing drunkenly in Chora's Den before being arrested on charges of public indecency-"  
"Oh dear God, what has she done now?" Shepard whispered, feeling his knees go weak. The last time Bethany had been in trouble with the law, the court case had dragged on for months.

"Citadel Nightly News is in possession of security camera footage of the incident. We warn that some viewers may find the following images disturbing."

Shepard and Ashley sat side by side on the couch, silently watching the footage of Bethany dancing half-naked atop the circular bar of Chora's Den. The footage wasn't nearly grainy enough for the Spectre's liking and the sound quality was also much clearer than he'd have liked.

Bethany tottered over to the bar, climbed atop a vacant bar stool and, arms outstretched for balance, mounted the bartop. Clasped in one hand was a mostly empty bottle of Champagne, in the other, one of Bethany's seemingly endless supply of cigarettes, glowing dully between her fingers.

The various patrons clapped and cheered. Several wolf whistles rang out along with cries of "Take it off!" Reeling slightly from side to side, Bethany dropped the bottle of alcohol, flicked the cigarette to the floor and-

"Oh tell me she didn't," Shepard almost moaned.

-gripping her blouse with both hands, pulled it up over her head, revealing a lacy black bra. Bethany's skin was tinted bluish red courtesy of Chora's lighting and the onlookers roared in appreciation.

In his apartment, Shepard slumped forward, head in his hands.

Onscreen, cheered on by the cataclysmically drunk bar patrons, Bethany began gyrating back and forth on the bar, whirling her blouse overhead before flinging it into the crowd. The blouse flew across the room before coming to rest wrapped around a turian's face. A taloned hand pulled it aside before the turian broke into applause.

"Wow, Skipper. Your sister's a little wild," Ash opined. Unfortunately for the Skipper's blood pressure, his sister was only just getting warmed up.

Centred on the screen, Bethany began belting out the chorus of an old song from an earlier century. "_I kissed a girl and I liked it, the taste of her cherry chapstick...I kissed a girl just to try it..."_

"Wow," Ashley said, sounding impressed.

As she sang, Bethany began executing a series of high kicks, thrilling the onlookers. After one particularly enthusiastic high kick, she lost her balance and fell backward out of sight behind the bar. "Wah!" she screamed before landing with an audible thump.

As the images cut to the salarian newsreader, who seemed to be having trouble keeping a straight face, Shepard muttered darkly, "I'll kill her. Yes, I am going to murder her and make it look like an accident."  
The newsreader wrapped up the report, saying, "After falling from the bar, the woman was subdued, for her own safety and was placed under arrest by members of Citadel Security-" Shepard took the remote from Ash and turned off the vid.

---

Bethany stood in the drunk tank of the C-Sec Academy, arms crossed over her breasts, hands clutching her shoulders for warmth. The skin of her upper body and arms was marbled with gooseflesh - she hadn't noticed the cooler temperatures the last time she'd been here. The C-Sec pigs who'd cuffed her had told her they were keeping the blouse as 'evidence.' Bethany thought it was rather more likely they just wanted the chance to ogle her curves a while longer. It was flattering, in a perverse sort of way, knowing that, as she approached her thirty-fifth year, she was still capable of turning on the opposite sex. And even those of the same sex, if the number of drunk young things eyeing her off at Chora's was any indication.

But still, being made to stand around in the drunk tank, shivering while she waited for Augie to come bail her out was beginning to grate on her nerves. Augie _was_ coming to bail her out, wasn't he? He wasn't going to let her sit here all night, in some misguided attempt to 'teach her a lesson?'

That was the sort of thing their father might try, were he on the station. Besides, she had already learned the lesson - getting plastered and dancing drunkenly in public was a no-no. Fine. Good. Could she _please_ go home now?

"Come on, little brother, this isn't funny any more. I know your contacts in C-Sec must have called you to let you know I'm here."

Bethany glanced at her watch. She'd been in here over an hour already and counting. A chill certainly began stealing through her - Augie _wasn't_ coming to bail her out. He was going to let her remain here, cold and alone.

Swallowing past the lump rising in her throat, Bethany sat on the hard mattress, that, aside from the toilet, was the only feature of the cell. Slumped forward, hands covering her face, she didn't see her brother or Ashley as they walked towards her cell.

"Beth," Shepard's voice quietly spoke her name. Bethany lowered her hands from her face, pushed the hair out of her eyes and turned to face him.  
"You came," she said.

"Of course. You're my sister."

"I thought you were going to leave me here, to teach me a lesson," Bethany confessed.

"Ash talked me out of it," her brother said, with a small smile. Bethany locked eyes with Williams, who nodded.

"You look cold," Ash observed, unbuttoning her jacket and offering it to Bethany through the bars. Bethany stepped forward and took it. As she pulled it on, a passing C-Sec officer called out, "Oh I was enjoying the view!"

Bethany glared at the man, briefly considered giving him the one-finger salute then decided he wasn't worth the effort.

"Come on, let's get you home," Shepard said.

---

Augustus had forgotten just how much of a 'morning person' his sister was and she was reminding him of that fact, forcibly. As Augustus lay under the sheets alongside Ash, still about ninety percent asleep, he slowly became aware of a hissing sound from somewhere in the apartment. After analysing the sound for several seconds, his mind identified the hissing as the shower. Cracking one eyelid open, the Spectre saw that, according to the bedside clock, it had just gone 0330. Last night, his sister had gone to Chora's, gotten drunk enough to dance half-naked on the bar, was taken into custody and had to be bailed out and now, only a matter of hours later, she was wide awake and seemingly very chipper. If the song lyrics he could hear her belting out from under the shower were any indication.  
Shepard groaned and covered his head with his pillow; it didn't block out the sound of her singing.

"Cause nobody wakes up feeling the same, she's got a new agent, she's got a new name, she's got nothing to hide, she could've been more, she's just a private school kid, school kid whore."

As the sound of the shower cut off, Shepard removed the pillow from over his head and, deciding he wouldn't get any more sleep with Bethany up, rolled out of bed. His movements disturbed the mattress enough that Ashley rolled over, "What time is it?" she asked, rubbing her eyes.

"Too early," Shepard griped. Reaching over to stroke her bare shoulder, he said, "Go back to sleep, honey." Ash didn't reply, for she was already asleep.

Shepard left the bed, pulled on his robe and headed towards the bathroom. As he approached, the door slid open, copious amounts of steam billowing out. Emerging from the cloud, wrapped in a towel and humming tunelessly was his sister.  
"Did you use up all the hot water?"

Bethany shrugged, "Probably. What's for breakfast? I'm starving."

Later that morning, Bethany, Shepard and Ashley strode out to Alliance Docking Bay 1194 where the now-famous SSV _Normandy _had been berthed since the geth assault on the Citadel. Bathed in the bright lights of the docks, the ship seemed incredibly sleek and deadly to Bethany who, before now, had only ever seen the ship in the documentary made about it. The letters spelling out the frigate's name glowed under the lights, seeming to the older woman like a beacon of hope in a galaxy full of death, destruction, greed, corruption, mad scientists and rachni, don't forget them.

"So this is the tub my tax money's been paying for?" Bethany said, hoping to coax a rise out of brother.

He didn't disappoint. "_Normandy_ is _not_ a tub! She's the most advanced ship in the human fleet.." he trailed off as Bethany laughed aloud.

"You always were too easy to wind up, Augie," she said, still chuckling. Ash looked from sister to brother, smiling slightly at them. The interplay between the Shepard siblings was so much like the relationships she had with her own sisters.

"And that's another thing," the Commander went on, standing to face both his partner and his sister. Once we get on board the ship, _you_," he pointed at Bethany, "are no longer my sister, you're a Marine, so act like one. And Ash," he said, voice softening as he briefly touched her face, "You're not my girlfriend, you're my Gunnery Chief. Do we have any problems with this?"

Ash embraced the Skipper tightly, whispered something into his ear too quietly for Bethany to hear. Bethany turned away; public displays of affection made her gag and watching her own brother going all gooey eyed threatened to make her vomit.

"Are you two done yet?" she asked at length, studying the frigate's hull.

As she stood in the airlock, eyes closed, feeling the decontamination beam play over her, Bethany attempted to sort through the feelings evoked by being back on an Alliance ship for the first time in a decade. Her previous stint in the Marines had ended with her assaulting a superior officer and being summarily discharged and even before that, her career hadn't been particularly noteworthy; she hadn't even managed to rise in rank above Private First Class.

Augie, pardon, Lieutenant Commander Shepard had always been the high achiever of the family, annoyingly so. He'd learned to walk and talk faster than she had but she'd always had the edge in smartmouthery and out-and-out disrespect for authority. A smile tugged at her lips as the decontamination process completed and the ship's VI spoke in that slightly sexy machine voice they all seemed to have these days. "Logged: the commanding officer is aboard, XO Pressly stands relieved."

"That thing have a name?" Bethany enquired.

"The VI?"  
"No, Augie, the food processor!"

"Beth..." Shepard said in warning. "Why would we name the VI?"  
"On my last posting, we called the VI Bitching Betty," Bethany said, following her brother as he made a left turn, leading them to the bridge and, presumably, the helmsman. Bethany rolled her eyes, it was a good thing the ship had only a skeleton crew, if she had to meet and greet the entire crew and memorise more than a handful of names, she'd probably shoot herself.

"Bethany, I'd like to introduce you to our helmsman, Flight Lieutenant-" as the man in the pilot's seat craned his head around to face the newcomers, Bethany gasped in delight.

"Jeffrey Moreau!" she squealed, "Son of a bitch! I haven't seen you since..."  
Joker smiled broadly while Shepard and Ash looked at each other, confused. "Since you punched your LT's head in and got booted out of the service," he finished for her.  
Bethany pushed past her brother, settled herself in the vacant co-pilot's seat and shook Joker's hand. "So, broken your legs recently?" she asked brightly.

"Only a couple of times," Joker shrugged as if to say _what can you do?_

"Uh," Shepard said. "How do you two know each other?"  
"Joker was the junior helmsman while I was serving on the _San Francisco_. It's been a while, hasn't it, Jeff?"

"Yeah. You look well, Beth," Joker said and from the tone of their conversation, it was obvious even to Shepard that there was some kind of history between his helmsman and his sister. "Call me crazy, but haven't I seen your face in a magazine somewhere?"  
"Probably. I've done a bit of modelling work here and there," Bethany waved a hand as though this wasn't important.

Joker blinked, scratched at his beard. "From marine to model, you always were special. Uh, I mean.." uncharacteristically Joker was at a loss for words.

"Maybe we should show you around the rest of the ship?" Shepard suggested.

"Augie, don't interrupt when the grown-ups are talking," Bethany said, not looking at him.

Joker sniggered. "Augie, that's good."

Bethany actually felt the pressure of her brother's glare on the back of her neck and sighed. "We'll catch up later, Moreau," she said, rising from her seat. "Say, what happened to the _Frisco_, anyway?"  
Joker's face turned somber as he replied, "It was at the battle for the Citadel. Half a dozen geth cruisers just took her apart."  
"Fuck me," Bethany said quietly. It had been ten years, but the _San Francisco_ had always been 'her' ship and she felt a sense of loss for all the lives snuffed out by those motherless synthetics.

Feeling disheartened at the loss of her old ship, Bethany trailed behind her brother and Williams as they made their way away from the bridge, down the decking past the rows of now-crewless sensor stations and to the CIC.

Standing in uniform, hands clasped behind his back before the galaxy map display that dominated the CIC, was the _Normandy'_s executive officer, Pressly. He saluted as Shepard approached. "Good to be back on board, sir."  
Returning the salute, Shepard nodded. "I appreciate you cutting short your leave to be here, Pressly."  
The older man shook his head, "No problem at all, Commander." Turning to Bethany, he said, "And this must be your sister. You kept _that_ quiet, I have to say."

"I fail to see how my family dynamics had any impact on our previous mission, Pressly," Shepard said, jaw muscles bunching together.  
"Don't worry about it, sir," Bethany addressed Pressly.

"Oh sure, you can call him sir but not me!" Shepard's voice sounded too loud even to his own ears and a part of him realised how petulant he must look.

Blithely ignoring him, Bethany went on, "I've always been the black sheep of the family. Well me and crazy Uncle Fred. Remember him, Augie?"  
"Beth," her brother replied helplessly.

"Ah, Uncle Fred, he was convinced that, after First Contact, the turians had abducted him and implanted microchips into his brain so they could control him and use him as a sleeper agent to attack his own people. How mental is that?"  
"Uncle Fred had a medical condition and you shouldn't make light of it," the Commander pointed out.

"If by 'medical condition' you mean he was batshit crazy then I'd be inclined to agree with you."

"We should keep moving. Carry on, Pressly," Shepard said.

"Aye aye, sir."

"You're scheduled for a medical about now so I'll show you to the medlab," Shepard informed his sister, leading them away from the CIC. Inside the medlab, Bethany saw several exam tables jutting from the bulkhead as well as an array of medical scanners and other implements. A woman who appeared to be in her twenties stood up from a desk as they entered. The medtech wore a pristine white nurse's uniform and moved with an almost ethereal grace, a small smile playing across her delicate elfin features.

"Since Dr Chakwas is still on leave, I'll leave you in the capable hands of Nurse Kitty," Shepard said before he and Ash departed.

The doors hissed shut as they left and the nurse stepped towards Bethany, eyeing her as she approached. "My name's Kitty," she said, voice almost a purr.

"First or last?" Bethany asked, giving into the urge to cross her arms protectively over her chest. Something about the nurse's intent gaze unnerved her slightly.

Kitty stepped in close enough to kiss Bethany, if she desired, "_You_ decide," she whispered. The tip of Kitty's tongue ran delicately across black-painted lips and, as she stepped back, Bethany caught a hint of Nurse Kitty's perfume, recognised it as being from the Sweet Vixen line-up. Kitty's black lipstick, eyeshadow and eyeliner contrasted sharply with her spacer-pale skin, the effect at the same time a little confronting and alluring.

Bethany swallowed, feeling her throat click. _A lesbian nurse. A lesbian nurse on a naval frigate. It's like I stepped into a porno flick._

"Well, let's get started," Kitty said. "Take off your clothes."  
Bethany leaned away from Nurse Kitty. Nurse Kitty leaned in an equal distance towards her. "Uh, maybe I'll come back another time." _When you're not about to try jumping my bones._

Kitty's right index finger waggled back and forth. The fingernail was painted black to match her lip gloss. "Ah ah ahhh! Commander Shepard, my CO and your brother instructed me to ensure that you're fit for duty before you leave here. Look, I'll be honest with you: I was at Chora's when you performed that totally _awesome_ song and dance number."

_Oh hell no_

"And as I sat at my table, sandblasted half out of my mind, I thought to myself _My God, that woman is gorgeous! I'd love to be able to take her back to my place and have my wicked, wicked way with her."_

_Oh fiddlesticks_

"Then those C-Sec pigs came and took you away in handcuffs, lucky devils! Now, by some happy coincidence here _I_ am and here _you_ are, alone...together."  
Bethany stumbled backwards a step, then another before her retreat was blocked by an exam table.  
Nurse Kitty heaved an almost pained sigh, "But...don't worry. As long as we're on this ship and I'm wearing this uniform," Kitty placed a hand to her throat and slowly caressed her throat, chest and stomach, "I'll be on my very best behaviour, the consummate professional." Turning to open a drawer, Kitty removed a pair of latex gloves and snapped them on.

Smiling impishly, blue eyes sparkling with glee, Nurse Kitty ordered, "Clothes. Off. Now."

---

Bethany exited the medlab at a fast walk, having been pronounced fit and healthy by a beaming Nurse Kitty who made no secret of the fact that she'd love to perform certain sinful but oh so very sweet acts upon her patient's body. Bethany was so intent on putting as much space between herself and the saucy little minx as possible that she didn't see the person coming from the other direction until they'd collided with each other.

Bethany recoiled, hand to her forehead and bit down a curse.

Liara, the victim of Bethany's momentum, fell heavily to the decking, the datapad she'd been carrying clattering to the floor.

"Oh! Dr T'soni, I didn't see you there," Bethany grabbed the asari's arm, pulling her upright.

"Ms Shepard! I didn't realise you were aboard already," Liara said and, noticing her datapad still on the floor, leaned forward to pick it up. At the same time Bethany leaned forward to pick it up.

Again, the two women's heads banged together.

"Ohhh, that's gonna leave a mark," Bethany moaned.  
"I am so sorry!" Liara sounded frantic, "Are you injured? Should I call the nurse?"  
"No!" Bethany snapped, "God no! That woman's deranged."  
"Whatever do you mean?"

"I mean that..." Bethany trailed off, wondering exactly how to frame her reply to the asari, whose blue skin had deepened to violet in her distress. "Just try not to make eye contact with her and you should be fine," Bethany finally managed. Liara seemed like a nice girl, if a 107 year old could be termed a girl and Nurse Kitty would likely eat her alive.

"Is there something about the nurse I should know about? Please, if you know anything, I would greatly appreciate you telling me."  
Bethany leaned back against the bulkhead, looked around to make sure nobody else was within earshot and motioned Liara closer. "Just so you know, Nurse Kitty likes women."  
Liara blinked. "I see..." she trailed off, clearly not seeing at all.

Bethany tried again, "No, I mean she _likes_ women. In_ that way_."  
"What way would that be?" By the Goddess, the Commander's sister was obviously an intelligent woman yet she was making no sense whatsoever.  
"She's a lesbian!" Bethany said, louder than she'd intended.

Augie chose that exact moment to enter the conversation, "Who's a lesbian?"  
"Your nurse."  
"She's not," Shepard sounded shocked.

"How can you _be_ so clueless, Augie!" Bethany snapped. "She'd very much like to see me bound to her bed with silken scarves, apparently."

Liara gasped, "Nurse Kitty wishes a _joining _with you?" Liara felt a curious churning settle in her stomach and it took her several seconds to identify the feeling. It was jealously. _That is ridiculous, Liara. You barely know this woman, why should you care if the nurse wishes to..to.._

Bethany's words broke her train of thought, "If a joining is what they're calling it these days, then yeah, she wants to _join_ with me until the cows come home."

"Excuse me, I should get back to my work station," Liara muttered and departed.  
Watching her leave, the siblings glanced at each other, "What's with her?" Shepard asked.

"Hell if I know. Does everybody on this ship have issues or is it just her and your nymphomaniac of a nurse?"

* * *

A/N: the scene at Chora's draws inspiration from a chapter in _Special Effects _by Prioris in which Liara and Ashley go to Chora's Den and subsequently end up in the drunk tank, bailed out by Shepard. Read it, it's funny stuff.

Obviously, the song sung by Bethany is I Kissed A Girl by Katy Perry. The song in the shower is Private School Kid by Sarah McLeod.


	5. Chapter 5

Shop 'Til You Drop

After running into Liara not once but twice, Bethany stood in the elevator car that connected the _Normandy_'s mid-deck to the garage deck, marvelling at the ship. In particular, she marvelled at how incredibly slow the elevator was.

_You'd think, with all the billions of credits sunk into the design and construction of this boat that somebody could have sourced a faster elevator. Did the bean counters at Arcturus decide they had to cut costs and thought, Hey let's contract out the elevator to the lowest bidder! Honestly, between the elevator and that flickery control panel near the mess hall, this ship is beginning to look a tad over-designed and under-funded._

The elevator doors hissed open and Bethany entered the vehicle bay, boot heels echoing on the decking. Ahead of her was an M35 Mako, sitting on its six wide-profile tyres like some improbable dune buggy. A dune buggy mounting a really big gun. Looking at the 155mm turreted cannon, Bethany wondered if the person responsible for the weapon was obsessed with giant phallic symbols.

Arrayed along the port bulkhead, as she faced away from the elevator were a line of lockers. Augie had informed her that hers was the one in the middle before leaving her to take care of some things in his office. By _things_, Bethany thought he probably meant _Ash_ then chided herself. Augie was so strait-laced and by the book that it would probably literally kill him to breach regulations. At least any more than he already had.

On Bethany's right was the requisition officer who nodded as she approached his station. Augie had told Bethany to procure some gear for herself and store it in her locker. _Because I totally wouldn't have figured that part out for myself_ she thought with a roll of her eyes.

"Hey there, my name's Mike," the requisition officer greeted her. She shook hands with him.

"Bethany," she replied and, rubbing her hands in anticipation, asked, "So...where do you guys keep the Kassa Fab gear?" During her stint in the 99th, PFC Shepard would have done almost anything to get her hands on a set of Colossus armour. Instead, the tight-asses in Procurement had seemed more concerned with lowering equipment costs than with providing soldiers with adequate gear.

Mike seemed crestfallen as he answered her, "We ah, we don't have any Kassa gear. I don't have the licences for them."

"OK," Bethany nodded. She supposed even a Spectre had credit issues. "What about Armax? D'you have any Predator heavies?" Turians knew how to manufacture a hardsuit. While the ablative plating wasn't as thick as that of a Kassa suit, which could probably absorb a round from a tank, the kinetic barriers of a Predator suit were second to none. Not that she was particularly keen to stand still long enough to be shot in the first place.

Mike shook his head. "No."

Bethany inhaled deeply, feeling her chest expand and blew the breath out. She was beginning to see a pattern emerging. "So, no Kassa or Armax. What about Rosenkov?" she was grasping at straws, she knew. This was all her brother's doing, she knew _that_as well. Tight-fisted little rat bastard.

"Ms Shepard, I think it would be quicker to tell you what I do have, rather than what I don't," Mike typed a command into a small keyboard on the counter and a holographic list of available gear hovered in the air before them. It was a depressingly short list.

"Aldrin Labs and Hahne-Kedar?" Bethany gasped, naming the two Earth-based companies who were the Alliance's main suppliers of weapons, armour, omni-tools, bio-amps and Q-tips.

Aldrin, in particular, were known for manufacturing gear that very definitely hailed from the 'cheap and nasty' end of the spectrum and Hahne-Kedar wasn't much better, though their line of Mantis and Scorpion hardsuits were above average performers. Even that wasn't saying much, when they were stacked up against the likes of an Aldrin Labs Hydra suit. Bethany wasn't at all surprised that the idiots in Procurement were _still_ outfitting the troops so shoddily. It was a wonder anybody ever made it back from the front lines at all these days.

"Ms Shepard-" Mike began.

"Call me Bethany," she insisted.

"Bethany...you see, your brother..well...I really shouldn't say," Mike muttered.

Bethany leaned in towards him, "It's OK, you can tell me."

Mike looked around to make sure nobody could overhear them and leaned forward to speak conspiratorially to Bethany. "Well between you, me and the bulkheads, the Commander is a tight-ass. He _never _purchases any licenses. Oh, one time, he did drop a hundred credits on a Devlon license," he nodded as Bethany rolled her eyes, "But apart from that, nothing."

Bethany nodded sympathetically, "I hear ya. You know how sometimes women's magazines have these little packets of shampoo or whatever as giveaways in some issues?"

"Yeah?"

"When Augie was twelve, he gave one of those to our mother for Mother's Day. Cheap little bastard."

"Well, it's the thought that counts," Mike said.

"Screw that," Bethany hissed, "I had an after school job washing dishes on this station we were living on at the time, he could have come to me for the money, but no!"

Mike nodded, made the holographic display disappear and said, "Your best bet would be the Citadel vendors. I know this hanar merchant on the Presidium who has stocks of Kassa gear from time to time."

Bethany checked her watch. They were due to ship out for the Hades Gamma cluster in a little over two hours. Plenty of time.  
"Right," she declared, "I cannot work under these conditions! If my idiot brother comes looking for me, cover for me."

"If anybody asks, you decided to catch some rack time in the sleeper pods," Mike assured her.

Back on the main deck, Bethany headed forward, towards the airlock, nodding at the few crew she passed along the way. As she passed by the galaxy map, Liara appeared. This time Bethany saw her coming.  
"Where are you going?" Liara asked, falling into step beside Bethany

"Shopping."

"But Commander Shepard said..."

At the airlock, Bethany turned to face the asari. "You're an only child aren't you?"

"Yes, but what does that have to do with anything?"

"It's the prerogative of the elder sibling to make life as difficult as possible for the the younger sibling but in such a way so as to not be _seen_ to be making life difficult."

"But the Commander said-"

Bethany cut her off, "Look, you want to come with me, make sure I don't get arrested or something?" A strange lightness seemed to suffuse Liara's being as Bethany tossed out the invitation to accompany her. Liara could never have said just why she felt drawn to the Spectre's sister but there was _something _about her. She was beautiful, yes but she was also rebellious, strong willed, even reckless and qualities like that Liara was beginning to find strangely intoxicating. Liara cautioned herself against making a complete and utter fool of herself, as she had so often done in the past.

Several seconds had passed since Bethany had issued the invitation and with a start, Liara realised she had yet to reply. _Oh Goddess, you're doing it already._ "Yes, yes I do wish to come with you."  
Bethany nodded and addressed the helmsman, "Joker, we're going out. If my brother asks where we went...bullshit your way out."  
"For you? Of course," Joker drawled as human and asari exited the ship. He sighed as they left, and turned back to his instruments.

Standing in the elevator connecting the Alliance docking bays to C-Sec, Bethany finally gave in to the urge and lit up. However long she was to spend on the _Normandy _was going to be hell without her coffin nails. But even Bethany realised she could only push her brother so far and smoking aboard the ship was definitely out. She turned her head slightly as she felt Liara's gaze upon her.

"Why do you smoke?" she asked.

Bethany shrugged, exhaled twin streamers of smoke through her nostrils. "Why do people do anything?" Answering her own question, she went on, "Because they can. I know this," she waved the hand holding the cancer stick, "is bad for me and will eventually kill me but any of us could die at any time so why worry?"

"That is...a depressing way to think," Liara said quietly.

"We all have our little vices, Liara. For me it's cigarettes and old pop culture that nobody else gets. Anyway, I'm going to have to quit at least temporarily while I'm on the ship. That'll be fun."

"If...if there is anything I can do to help in any way?"

"Thanks."

The elevator doors slid aside and as Bethany led the way out, a small smile flickered across Liara's face.

"When I shop, it's like a well-planned military operation: I have my list of targets, I hit them as fast and hard as possible and I get out as quick as I can. Think you can keep up?" Bethany asked as she approached the C-Sec requisitions officer. If the turian was surprised to see the woman in civilian garb making a beeline for him, he hid the surprise well.

"I will not slow you down, Bethany."

"Groovy."

"Greetings," the turian began, "Can I assist you with something?"

In reply, Bethany extended her right hand to the turian, "My name's Bethany Shepard. I'm the sister of that _other_ Shepard. So what can I call you?"

Taking the offered hand the turian replied, "Boris. At least that's my 'human' name. Your kind seems to have problems pronouncing my given name so I tell everybody to call me Boris." As he spoke, the turian's mandibles flicked, "I must confess that Commander Shepard never mentioned a sister."

"Yeah, he does that. I tend to embarrass him a lot, and I think that at times, he'd like to forget I exist."

From behind Bethany, Liara released a shocked gasp. "I do not believe the Commander could think such things."

The turian folded his hands before him on the desk. "So what can I do for you today, Commander Shepard's Sister?"

"I need guns. Lots and lots of guns."

Boris' fingers danced across his keyboard, and a list of goods flickered into existence. It was a satisfyingly long list. "Oh baby..." Bethany breathed. Her eyes focused in on an assault rifle with an underslung grenade launcher.

"I see you have an eye for quality," Boris declared, rolling his chair across the floor to a wall-mounted weapons safe. Boris opened the safe and returned with the weapon.

The slate-grey rifle with its integrated launcher was a little bulkier in its collapsed form than a conventional rifle but Bethany saw that it would still fit the standard mounting slots on a hardsuit.

"Haliat Armory XM-150 'Dragon' assault rifle with integrated 30mm launcher capable of loading a variety of ordnance, ranging from HE to non-lethal and tactical mines," Boris rattled off.

Bethany smiled broadly and nodded. This little shopping expedition would send her broke but she didn't care, this was the most fun she'd had in a long time. And she wasn't in any danger of being arrested, which was a _definite_ plus.

Liara stood to Bethany's right and a little behind her, gazing at the line of her neck and the way her lips curved in a delighted smile. She seemed so youthful and carefree to Liara that she had difficulty seeing her as a soldier, despite the knowledge that Bethany had spent three years in the Systems Alliance military. Hurriedly, Liara looked away and found something of interest on the floor, lest she be caught staring.

True to her earlier statement, Bethany quickly wrapped up her purchases - a matched pair of sidearms, the rifle, a shotgun and a sniper rifle and a pair of combat talons. "Haven't fired a gun in years but I like to be prepared," she told Liara. Boris promised that the weapons would be delivered to the docking bay before they were due to ship out.

"Are you sure you will require so much firepower?" Liara asked.

"If my time in the marines taught me nothing else, and it didn't, it's that you can never have too much firepower."

As they sat in a rapid transit car, departing C-Sec for the Presidium, Liara asked, "Did you really mean what you said, about you being an embarrassment to your brother?"

"I can understand his point of view. In our culture, the older sibling is always expected to be the bright shining example for everybody else to follow. Instead, I struggled through school with barely adequate grades, got booted out of the Marines and I hold the record for the number of arrests in my family. I don't mind though. Augustus is a pain at times but he's my brother and I love him to death. When I heard on the news that he'd been made a Spectre, I was so happy that I just cried. I was at the salon, having my hair done at the time when the news came over the radio. Suddenly, everybody in the salon was clustered around me, congratulating me, like I'd just announced that I'd won the lottery _and_ married a millionaire."

Bethany laughed at herself, running a hand through her hair, "I don't even know why I just told you all that."

"Sometimes it is easier to confide in a stranger than to somebody you know," Liara replied. Then, tentatively, "But I hope we can become friends, Bethany."

"Huh? I thought we already had?"

Liara turned her face aside, so that Bethany wouldn't see the huge smile breaking out over her face. "Have you told the Commander how you feel?"

The question seemed to shock the human, "Of course not! That'd be...weird."

"Perhaps you should when you see him next. I think it would do you both good to have it spoken aloud."

"Yeah, maybe you're right. OK, we're here," and without another word, Bethany exited the transit cab and they rejoined the ebb and flow of the crowd.

"This one welcomes you to its decadent emporium. Would you be interested in seeing its fantastic items today?" Bethany looked up at the hanar floating before her. _Decadent emporium_ she thought and suppressed a giggle. "A friend of a friend told me you might have some Colossus armour available?" she asked hopefully. _Please please please please_

"Oh indeed, valued customer. This one is pleased to offer a heavy-class Colossus hardsuit suitable for human physiology."  
The hanar recoiled slightly, tentacles writhing in surprise as the human jumped and released a yelp. "Woo-hoo!" Bethany smiled as the other customers looked at her.

Liara smiled, buoyed by her friend's enthusiasm. The hanar called over a human assistant to remove the black and red hardsuit from storage and present it to his customers. Bethany parted with the last of her credits and stood head cocked to one side, eyeing the hardsuit. "I think it lacks a certain something..." Turning to Liara, she said, "Wait here for me, I'll be right back. And don't let anybody touch my suit."  
Without waiting for a reply, she dashed off, heading towards a nearby arts supply store. Liara watched as she disappear inside and reappeared minutes later, holding something her hands.

As she rejoined her, Liara saw that the object was a permanent marker pen. A hot pink permanent marker pen. Leaning over the hardsuit lying atop a counter, Bethany wrote something across the chest plate. Turning to the hanar, she asked, "Is there somewhere I can put this on?" With an extended tentacle, the hanar indicated a line of change rooms. Lugging the hardsuit, Bethany disappeared from view. Liara watched bemusedly, wondering what the woman had written on the armour.

"Oh baby! Where have you _been_ all my life?" Bethany's ecstatic cry rang out from behind the door of the changing room. Several customers stopped browsing and gaped in her direction. Liara watched as Bethany exited the changing cubicle, now encased in the armour. Her long auburn hair was stuffed under the helmet. Her civilian clothes were bundled up and clutched in one hand. Bethany stood before her, arms raised at her sides and asked, "How do I look? Badass or what?"

Liara gasped slightly. "You look very," _Beautiful and warlike_, "imposing," she finished.

"I do, don't I?"

Liara stepped closer to the human, peering at the front of the hardsuit and the words scrawled in hot pink _Guns don't kill people, I do_ was written across the right side of the chest plate. Across the left, _Can't we all just get along?_

The two sentiments seemed quite at odds to Liara. "I do not understand," she confessed, pointing at the writing.

Bethany rolled her shoulders around beneath the armour, "Soldiers have been personalising their gear for centuries. In my old unit, one guy had a yellow smiley face on his armour, right next to the words _Born to kill_. He thought it was funny."

"I see, I suppose it is a human thing."

"Let's go. If we're lucky, we can be back on board the ship before Augie even knows we're gone."

Bethany stood beside Liara, waiting as the decon system did its job. Her helmet was tucked under one arm - stuffing that much hair into the helmet had proven to be almost impossible and she made a mental note to ask Ash to cut it for her. As promised, Boris had arranged delivery of Bethany's gear and she slot each weapon into its hardpoint on her armour. The blades she sheathed along her forearms.

Bethany was surprised at just how_ right _it felt, handling weapons after so many years of civilian life. Already, she was running maintenance and cleaning procedures through her mind. She made another mental note, to ask Ash if she had any scramrails. Scramrails, frictionless material and shredder rounds. Bethany grinned. Anybody unlucky enough to find themselves under her guns would be in a world of hurt.

Liara and Bethany had made it back from their illicit shopping trip with still an hour to spare and so far, nothing had gone wrong.

Then Bitching Betty sold them out. _Logged: The Commanding Officer's rebellious older sister is aboard. Please report to the Commander immediately._

"Son of a bitch!" Bethany swore as the inner airlock door cycled open. "Joker! That was you, wasn't it?"

"Guilty as charged," the helmsman confessed.

"Sorry about this, Liara," Bethany apologised.

"Don't worry about her, Beth," Joker interjected, turning to face them, "The Commander already figures you're a bad influence on her and has absolved her of all blame."

"How nice of him," Bethany deadpanned. As she left the bridge, she wondered how to get back at Joker. Maybe superglue his hands to his face while he was sleeping? Or superglue his hand to a certain appendage...a wicked-looking smile played across her lips as she headed to her brother's office.

"Where were you? And where did you get all that gear?" Shepard asked. His sister stood before him, all 175 centimetres of her, encased in a 'personalised' hardsuit. She came to a rough approximation of attention and threw him a mock salute.

"Shopping, to answer your first question and Boris and a hanar to the second," she replied. "You owe me for a Kassa license as well. I think your requisitions officer almost wet himself when I told him about it over the comm."

"Who's Boris?"

"The C-Sec requisitions guy."

"His name's...Boris?" Shepard asked.

"You mean you never thought to ask the guy for his _name_? Some great representative of humanity _you're_ turning out to be."

Shepard sighed. "Take a seat," he offered. Bethany sat on the double bed.

"You did change the sheets after you and Williams made whoopie in here, right?"

"Yes, very amusing."

"Look, I was speaking to Liara before and there's something I need to tell you, so shut your mouth and open your ears, 'cause I'm only gonna say this once."

Shepard watched his sister expectantly. "I'm sorry that I'm such an embarrassment to you." Bethany raised a hand to cut off his reply "But I want you to know that I don't hold it against you. I was so proud of you when I heard you'd been inducted into the Spectres. I was so..." Bethany sniffed. "Look at me, I'm about to break down but I have to get this out. I'll try to straighten up and fly right from now on, I promise."

"Oh, Beth. I've never thought of you as an embarrassment. You're my sister and no matter what you do, or don't do or whoever you punch out, I'll always be here for you."

Bethany wiped tears from her eyes, swallowed past the lump in her throat, "I love you, little brother, she whispered.

As she turned to leave, Shepard gasped, "Is that a _grenade launcher_?"

Bethany turned to face him, hefting the weapon. "This is an M41A pulse rifle. Ten millimeter with over-and-under thirty millimeter," _snick-snick_ "pump-action grenade launcher."

"I have no idea what you just said."

Bethany rolled her eyes and slot the weapon away. "_Aliens_, Twentieth Century Fox, 1986." Her brother stared blankly at her.

Bethany shook her head and walked out, saying "How can somebody so smart be so clueless?"

---

Williams stood by her workstation, eyes half-closed, thinking about the Skipper. Her hands worked at dismantling and cleaning her assault rifle as she imagined the kind of life she and Shepard might have together. Would Shepard pop the question? If he did, what would she say? The Williams sisters used to spend hours fantasising about their 'perfect man' and their 'perfect wedding.'

The Gunnery Chief was fairly certain she'd found her perfect man. Shepard was the ideal package - intelligent, sweet and caring, maybe a touch too serious at times but she supposed a Spectre and special forces operative would tend towards seriousness. But there were times when he'd say something totally off the cuff and she'd double over laughing. He had a great smile. Well defined abs. Ashley smirked to herself. The man was the ideal example of male physicality. And he was hers. He was hers and she felt an urge to just shout it out joyously.

She was so engrossed in her wholly inappropriate thoughts of her CO that she didn't hear the elevator opening at the other end of the vehicle bay or the footsteps heading towards her. Williams snapped the last pieces of the weapon together, checked the action and slot it into her locker. "I love you, Shepard," she half-whispered to herself.

"Yeah, I kinda have that effect on people."

Williams jerked slightly and spun around to see the woman who could well be her future sister-in-law. "Bethany, I didn't hear you come in."

Shepard's sister stood tall before her, encased in a Colossus hardsuit, auburn hair spilling over her shoulders. In one of Bethany's gloved hands was the hardsuit's helmet. In the other, idly twirling between her fingers, a combat talon.

"I need you to do me a favour, Williams," Bethany said, flipping the blade around and offering it to the younger marine.

"What's that?"

"I need a haircut."

"OoooKay."

"Seriously. You ever tried to stuff this much hair," Bethany dropped the helmet and grabbed a handful of her tresses, "into a hardsuit helmet?"

"Ah. How short do you want it?" Ashley answered, accepting the blade.

"Regulation length."

"You sure? I mean, you have really nice hair."

With a shrug, Bethany replied, "It'll grow back."

As Williams began sawing at the hair she asked, "Can I ask you something?"

"I think you kinda just did."

"Is Shepard the marrying kind?"

"Things between you _that _serious, huh? I mean, in his vidmail, Augie gushes on about you so much it's actually kinda sickening if you want the truth. I mean, that man is _really_ into you. I dunno what you did to him but don't ever stop. He's happier than I've ever seen him."

"Wow."

"Is he the marrying kind?" Bethany's tone turned musing, "No more or less than anybody else I guess."

Bethany smirked as strands of her hair littered the decking between her booted feet. "You might have to ask him yourself."

"What? Ask _him_ to marry _me?_" Williams paused, knife in hand.

"Why not? Don't know whether you noticed this while you've been busy making all kinds of happy messy love to my brother but this is the twenty-second century, sweetheart. Women have been getting more and more forward with each generation. On the other hand, marriage is _so_ twentieth century. If you two truly love each other-"

"We do," Williams said firmly.

"And you're loyal and committed to each other-"

"We are."

"Then why d'you even _need_ a marriage license and a big fancy rock on your finger? For the sake of tradition? Hell with that."

"You're saying the Skipper and I _shouldn't _get married?" Ash's voice rose in pitch as she spoke.

"Ease up there before you accidentally cut my throat with that thing. That's a titanium-alloy blade. Never gets blunt. You could probably stab a man in the heart right through a hardsuit, if you hit him hard enough."

Williams took a step back from Bethany. The hair was kind of ragged but it was definitely regulation length. Wouldn't pass a spit-and-polish inspection but that was never her aim. "We're done here," she stated.

Bethany turned to face her, took back her knife and slid it inside the right forearm sheathe. She ran her fingers through her newly shorn locks, strands of hair floating free. "I said something to upset you?"

Williams' bunched fists sat on her hips, "Oh only that the Skipper and I shouldn't get married."

"Whoa. I only suggested that a rock and marriage license are just symbols is all."

Williams' hands fell to her sides. "Sometimes symbols are important."

Bethany placed her hands on Ashley's shoulders, "Then if one of you proposes to the other and the other accepts, I'd be overjoyed to call you my sister-in-law." With that Bethany pulled the other woman into a hug. Releasing her she said, "I gotta get this stuff stored."

Bethany's fingers worked at unlatching the hardsuit's connections, storing each piece in her locker. When the final piece as well as her weapons were neatly squared away, she stepped back from the locker, surprised at how pleased she felt - everything before her was neat as a pin and, she instinctively knew, would pass inspection. _Damn. I'm out of the marines ten years and it's like I never left._

The shipboard uniform trousers she pulled up her legs, replacing her civilian garb fit well. The same couldn't be said of the shirt. The black fabric clung to her like a second skin and she was painfully aware of how prominent her breasts felt. Given the skin-tight nature of the material, her nipples may well have been visible from Jump Zero. Without the use of a telescope. She might as well have been wearing a sign reading _Here are my boobs! _

"I don't remember fatigues being this tight," Bethany griped.

"One size fits all," Williams said, shrugging.

"No, no it doesn't," Bethany scowled as she plucked the top away from her chest. This wouldn't do. Not at all. She was used to people looking at her. She did modelling work for godsake but this was different. She was going to be trapped on a frigate with a crew that included a nurse with a self-confessed liking for kinky sex and a expert on Protheans who seemed to be taking an intense interest in her. Bethany figured neither one needed any more encouragement. Rifling through the bag of clothes she'd brought aboard, she pulled out a loose-fitting blouse bearing an upward pointing arrow and the words _My face is up here_.

"Much better," she said and turned away from the locker.

"The Skipper won't like that," Ash warned her as she walked towards the engineering section. Bethany fell into step beside her, keen to see this huge element zero core she'd heard about in the documentary. "The _Skipper_ will deal with it."  
As they walked through the doors, the few engineering staff on board looked up and nodded. Eyes widened slightly at Bethany's unique take on the uniform. Williams nodded to the man in an officer's uniform, "Did Shepard introduce you to the engineering team?"

"No, he bundled me off to be poked and prodded by Nurse Kitty. After that I escaped to go shopping. Hi guys," Bethany waved at the men who nodded to her. Standing in one corner, looking up at them from a console stood a form in an enviro-suit.

"You must be Tali'Zorah nar Rayya," Bethany said, stepping forward and shaking the quarian's hand. The opaque visor of Tali's helmet prevented Bethany from seeing her expression but her voice seemed happy enough.

"Bethany Shepard? The Commander never spoke of you."

"The Commander has issues requiring years of therapy and possibly even brain surgery," Bethany smirked. "Pardon my asking but how does a quarian end up on an Alliance vessel?"

"I encountered the _Normandy_'s crew on the Citadel. The Commander and his allies saved my life when I came under attack by assassins. He allowed me to stay to hunt for Saren."

Bethany nodded as though this made perfect sense. Hell, when her brother was involved, anything was possible. Tali continued, "I was on my Pilgrimage, the rite of passage into adulthood required of my people but I find myself somewhat reluctant to leave all the friends I've made here."

"Hmm. Torn between duty and desire," Bethany mused, "Glad I never had to deal with that problem."

Tali nodded. "I have been in contact with the Conclave and Admiralty, the civilian and military governments on the flotilla and they have given my permission to postpone my return." Tali sighed, a kind of electronic hissing, "But I suppose that the longer I stay, the harder it will be to leave."

"Yeah..." Bethany trailed off, feeling suddenly awkward and bad that she'd saddened the quarian. Hell, judging by her voice, she was probably the quarian equivalent of a sixteen year old. Bethany didn't think she could handle being so far away from everything she'd ever known and still be able to function.

"I just want to say that I think what you guys do, leaving your people and going out alone, I think it takes a lot of courage and I admire that."

"Thank you," Tali replied. "Many people treat my kind with contempt because we created the geth."

"Hmm." Bethany turned to face the other crew. "So what do you guys do for fun on this boat?"

"Play strip poker, mostly," one of the crew replied.

"You will keep a civil tongue inside your head, do you understand me?" the officer barked. "Sorry about that. My name's Adams. I'm the chief engineer though I'm thinking of stepping down and letting Tali take over."

Bethany smiled, "Strip poker huh? Yeah, I could get into that. Later fellas," she said, glancing coyly at them over her shoulder as she exited the engine room.

---

Later, as Joker was running through the pre-flight checklist, Bethany stood beside her brother on the platform overlooking the galaxy map display. Unfortunately, the ship's design team hadn't anticipated that more than one person would want to use the map at the same time and the platform was a bit crowded.

"Damn it, Augie! Get off my foot!"

"Stay on _your _side of the platform then!" Shepard snapped back at her. Truly, she brought out the worst in him. He felt himself regressing. He figured his mental and emotional ages were about ten at the moment. Pretty soon, Pressly would say something and then Shepard would mouth off in reply, "_She_ started it!"

Shepard found it strange that his sister was showing as much interest in the inner workings of the frigate to begin with however and said as much when she'd shown up in the CIC, blatantly out of uniform.

"Why aren't you in uniform?"

"If you'd been born female, you'd understand what it feels like to have such tight material gripping your boobs, emphasising them to the point that you feel as though you're nothing more than a set of mammary glands on legs!" Bethany's voice had risen sharply towards the end of her speech and every head in the CIC had turned towards her. A female crew-member nodded in appreciation.

Serviceman Julie Hinz knew all about the tight-fitting material and being made to feel as though her boobs were the only reason people paid her any attention at all. Next shore leave, she vowed to herself, she'd have the breast reduction surgery. And God help him if her husband made an issue of it.

Ignoring the looks the crew gave her, Bethany went on, "Oh sure, for _you_, it's all fine and dandy. Oooh, look at my well defined abs and pecs! I'm a statue of a Greek god carved from marble!"

"It's the regulation uniform," Shepard went on regardless.

Ignoring his statement entirely, Bethany instead inquired about the _Normandy's_ systems. "What's the deal with that galaxy map? I never saw anything like that when I was in the service."

"Since when are you so interested in technical things?"

Shrugging, she replied, "I've always been interested in tech stuff. I've just never been good at working it. Purely for the hell of it, I took apart the toaster when I was ten. Never did figure out how to put it back together again."

"I vaguely remember that. Dad was almost in tears. He loved that toaster."

"It _was_ a nice toaster," Bethany admitted with a shrug. "You could toast six slices of bread at once and the bread slots were wide enough to accept English muffins. I'm gonna buy dad a new toaster when we get back."

"After twenty-five years?"

Bethany shrugged again. "Better late than never."

Shepard just shook his head as he showed her how to use the galaxy map, demonstrating how the touch-sensitive interface allowed users to zoom in and out, rotate planets or star systems and perform scans.

Reaching out with her right hand, Bethany brought the Hades Gamma cluster into focus. She zoomed in on a random system and, reaching out with her right hand, 'gripped' a planet, rotating it this way and that. Just to see what would happen, she employed a sharp flick of the wrist, resulting in the planet rotating at dizzying speeds. Her brother reached out and halted the rotation.

"Do you have any idea as to where in the cluster we should begin looking?" he asked.

"Not really. It's not like I see flashing neon signs saying _This way to secret rachni stud farm_."

Bethany closed her eyes and tried to recall more details from the dreams. This was difficult for her since she'd spent much of her time trying to forget the dreams and, after half a lifetime, had gotten quite good at it. A sequence of random numbers floated in her mind's eye. "I'm seeing some co-ordinates, I think. The sequence is broken, though. Either I didn't see the whole string to begin with or my mind's suppressing it."

Shepard nodded in understanding. He knew all about broken visions. "Maybe Liara can help you retrieve the information. If you allowed it, she could join her mind to yours and maybe find the location."

Bethany put her hands up, "Whoa, there! As I understand things, asari breed by joining minds with people. I ain't having no kids, Augie."

"It's not that sort of joining," Shepard chided her.

"Oh, you mean she does a Vulcan mind-meld? Why didn't you say so?"

Shepard blinked. "A Vulcan what now?"

"One of these days, you and I are going to sit down and I'll introduce you to some sci-fi classics: _Firefly, Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica..._"

The Commander's eyes met his XO's as his sister continued to rattle off a string of names that meant less than nothing to him. Pressly just smiled slightly and shrugged his shoulders.

Unnoticed, Bethany carried on, "..._Space: Above and Beyond, Aliens, SeaQuest: DSV, Stargate..."_

"Orders, Commander?" Pressly requested, speaking over the CO's sister.

"Plot a course for Hades Gamma-" Shepard began before Bethany cut in.

"Spool up the FTLs and prepare for jump on my mark!"

"Uh..sir?" a junior crewman put in.

Shepard sighed, grabbed his sister and hauled her away from the galaxy map. "Let's go see Liara," he urged her.

Nurse Kitty looked up from her inventory of a medical supply locker as the doors to the medbay swished open, revealing the Commander and the exquisite specimen of womanhood that was his sister. Commander Shepard nodded to Kitty as he passed her by, apparently on his way aft to the small storeroom and the asari scientist contained therein.

When she'd come on board the _Normandy_, Kitty had briefly toyed with the idea of tempting Dr T'soni into her sleeper pod but the Prothean expert had seemed so unsure of herself and ill at ease around humans that Kitty had decided she may not have been worth the trouble. Bit of a shame, that. T'soni was rather exotic what with her blue skini and those wide expressive eyes and her voice. Oh, Kitty felt herself getting all warm and fuzzy just thinking about her.

Behind the Commander came Bethany, out of uniform, openly defying her brother. _That _more than anything else about her, Kitty found to be a turn on. Oh sure, Bethany was eye-wateringly gorgeous to look at and moved with grace and poise but her utter disregard for the rules...that's what Kitty found so thoroughly intoxicating. That and the fact that, once suitably liquored up, Shepard's sister had shown herself more than willing to shed her inhibitions as well as her clothes.

Kitty turned as the Commander walked past and waved coyly at Bethany as she followed him. Bethany's eyes remained focused studiously on her brother's back as she trailed slightly behind him. Far from being put out, Kitty's lips twitched upwards; she loved it when they played hard to get.

Once out of earshot of the nurse, Bethany hissed at her brother, "What happened to your Chief Medical Officer?"

"Dr Chakwas is on leave. Something about a safari in South Africa to see lions."

"I just hope I don't require any treatment while I'm onboard," Bethany grumbled.

"Nurse Kitty is a highly qualified health practitioner."  
Bethany slapped a hand to her forehead. She had long since given up trying to decide whether Augustus genuinely was as obtuse as he appeared or he was just winding her up for his own sick amusement.

The doors connecting the medbay to the aft storage room hissed open, revealing Liara in the formfitting jumpsuit she habitually wore whilst onboard. She didn't look up as the humans entered. Instead she was bent over a scanning device, analysing a Prothean data disc. Or, more accurately, re-analysing one that had been salvaged during the geth war. "What secrets do you hold?" Liara said to herself in a voice barely above a whisper.  
The Commander made a throat-clearing noise. Liara gave no indication that she was aware of their presence. Indeed, in her current trance-like state, the entire crew could be violently butchered without her being aware of it.

Shepard made a slightly louder _ahem_ noise.

Bethany rolled her eyes. "Oh for godsake, let me get her attention."

Breathing in deeply, Bethany squared her shoulders and shouted at the top of her lungs, "SEX!"

Liara bolted out of her seat and spun around so rapidly her ankles knocked against each other and she would have fallen if the Commander hadn't been there to catch her.

"Now that I have your attention," Bethany smirked at Liara's expression. The asari's blue skin turned violet, either in embarrassment of almost falling on her face or because of Bethany's attention-grabber. Possibly both.

"Oh, excuse me! I was so caught up in my work that I didn't hear you come in," Liara fairly babbled as she regained her footing. If not her composure. Why were they here? More to the point, why was she? Had she agreed to accompany the Spectre on this expedition because he had asked her or because his sister would be present? No, she would not think of such things. Surely a woman as attractive and intelligent as Bethany had a romantic partner waiting for her to come home. Surely. Liara glanced at the woman's left hand, where, according to her studies in human sociology, one might expect to find a 'wedding ring' if, indeed Bethany was married. There was no ring. Liara wasn't sure if that was of significance or not.

Bethany stepped past her and leaned back against one of the storage crates stacked in the very rear of the room, arms crossed over her chest. "So, Liara. Augie tells me you can meld with peoples' minds and such."

Liara looked over at the Commander questioningly.

"Bethany sometimes experiences visions that sometimes come true," Shepard explained.

"Visions? Like the ones you experienced on Eden Prime and Virmire?"

Bethany cut in, "Let's just say that I banged my head once and now my brain's been permanently altered and leave it at that. We need to know where in the cluster to go and I'm hoping you can retrieve the information buried in my subconscious. Either way, it'll be a great conversation starter: _I ever tell you about that time I was mind-probed by this asari?"_

"You wish me to join my mind to yours and see if I can help you make sense of your visions?" Liara felt equal parts curious and scared. What might lie beneath Bethany's exterior? What did she _see_? More than that, what did she feel? What were her hopes and dreams?

Liara composed herself and nodded agreement. "Very well." Liara stepped close to Bethany who pushed herself upright. For a moment, Liara simply stood before the taller human, lost in her eyes. Eyes a deep, deep green the likes of which Liara had never before seen in her 107 years. To Liara, those eyes were pools of untold depth into which she would gladly plunge.

Bethany glanced at her brother who shrugged slightly.

Liara shook herself _This has to stop _and spoke, voice shaking. "Bethany, I want you to shut off the logical part of your mind," she began. Bethany smiled slightly. "Become like an uncarved stone." A slight titter of amusement escaped the human's lips. Liara frowned before continuing, "Embrace nothingness."

"You _are_ aware that you're quoting Lisa from _The Simpsons_, aren't you?" Bethany interjected, shaking with suppressed laughter.

"I'm quoting who from what?" Liara snapped, uncharacteristically angry. Before Bethany could reply, Liara grabbed her face in both hands and looked into her eyes, "Embrace Eternity!"

_By the Goddess! Such pain and fear she has seen! All these deaths. How can any one person be made to bear witness to such things, night after night and remain sane? Oh, Bethany! You possess such strength of will and...OK Liara, you are in here for a reason, remember? Focus your will. Seek anything pertaining to the Hades Gamma Cluster...Goddess! Her subconscious resembles an office that has been ransacked. Thoughts and images flying in all directions. How does she cope? She copes because she has no other choice, now focus! There! Are those co-ordinates? Quickly, memorise them before they fly away! What is all of this? What is a Firefly? Who or what are Apollo and Starbuck? Now would be a very good time to pull away, lest you find yourself lost in here for the rest of your life._

Commander Shepard observed his sister and Liara with a measure concern. This was the first time he'd witnessed an asari joining her mind to another's from the outside and the blank look on Bethany's face and the flickering of her eyes beneath closed lids was slightly unnerving. By contrast, Liara's face bore a look best described as 'orgasmic.' _Did she have that look on her face when she joined her mind to mine?_ he wondered. _What must have the crew thought?_

After a time during which the Pyramids of Giza could have been built, torn down and built again, Liara stepped away from Bethany and his sister's eyes flickered open. Bethany seemed fine, if a little surprised by the experience. As usual, after joining with another, Liara looked like she was about to collapse.

"Liara, you should probably sit down," Shepard advised her.

"Yes...the joining left me feeling a bit drained."

Shepard turned his attention to his sister, "Beth? Are you OK?"

Bethany rubbed her forehead, "You know that feeling you get when you come home and you can tell that somebody's been through your apartment, even though everything's exactly as you left it?"

"Uh, can't say that I do."

"Oh. Well it's weird is all I'm saying."

Shepard turned to Liara, seated in her chair propping her head up with her right hand. "Did you find anything helpful?" he asked her gently.

Liara sat up a little straighter and nodded. "Co-ordinates that point to an area of space within the Dis system."

"Did you see anything else that might help?"

Liara looked Bethany in the eyes, "The things you have seen in your visions...I do not know where you find the strength to go on," she confessed.

Bethany blinked, flicked a glance at the Commander who shrugged. "Yeah, well, I taught myself to compartmentalise all that shit so I don't go insane."

"You must be incredibly strong willed," Liara went on. The Spectre smiled slightly. Liara had said exactly the same thing to him after she'd seen the images from the Prothean beacon for the first time via his mind.

Bethany's eyebrows rose slightly at the overly admiring tone in Liara's voice. "Ohhhkay then," she finally managed. Bethany ran a hand through her truncated locks before speaking to her brother, "We better go tell your navigator where to go. Ooh! Can I tell him where to go? I've _always_ wanted to tell an officer where to go!"

Liara and Shepard exchanged glances. Bethany rolled her eyes and left the storage area, eyes resolutely _not_ looking in Nurse Kitty's direction. From the corner of her eye, Bethany glimpsed Nurse Kitty pouting seductively at her. _I'm going to have to do something about that girl_, Bethany realised. _Maybe knock her out and space her._


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Here's a little heads up: depictions of certain bodily fluids contained herein. I tried not to push things too far but I really wanted to have some fun at Private Fredericks' expense. Also, thanks for the reviews. I'm writing this purely for my own amusement but I still appreciate the feedback. One final note: don't take this fic too seriously. Treat it as a summer blockbuster movie - the sort of thing where you sit down and switch off your brain for a couple of hours.

6. Krakatoa

At last, they were under way. The two Shepards stood side by side in the bridge, behind Joker's position, watching as the helmsman expertly guided the _Normandy_ from her berth and away from the Citadel. Bethany's eyes widened slightly as she took in the number of warships in the area, human and otherwise. "I never realised there were so many combat vessels in this one area."  
Joker answered, "The Council, in its infinite wisdom, decided that after the geth invasion, it might be a good idea to strengthen the Citadel's defences."  
"_After_ the invasion had been repelled?" Bethany shook her head.

"Yeah," Joker said, scratching his beard, "Wait until _after_ the galaxy was almost ended before taking steps to prevent it from happening again."

Shepard sighed, "If the Council had done nothing, people would scream at them for _not_ taking steps to guard against future invasions. They're damned if they do and damned if they don't."  
"Don't tell me you feel sorry for them?" Bethany asked, aghast. "You do, you _do_ feel for them."  
The Spectre shrugged, "They play a vital role in the galaxy and we need them. As bone-headed as they've proven themselves to be in the past," he added with a smile.

Bethany shook her head. "I could say something about locking the barn door after the horse has bolted but I won't."

She leaned forward, peering out the bridge view ports at a particularly massive ship, a dreadnought, with scores of smaller craft attending it like bridesmaids flitting around a titanic bride. "That's the _Ascension,_ right?"  
The Commander nodded, "It was almost destroyed during the battle. Those smaller craft are working at repairing the hull." Shepard rubbed his jaw, considering the task before the ships' crews. "They've been working on the _Ascension_ for months, now."

Bethany smirked, "The Council had better hope nobody _else_ goes to war against them, or they'll be royally screwed."

Shepard nodded absently before taking his leave.

When he was out of earshot, Bethany seated herself in the co-pilot's seat and studied Joker's profile. "That beard suits you," she said. Joker removed his cap, scratched at his head, replaced the cap. Without looking at her, he asked quietly, "Why did you leave?"  
Beth sat back in her seat, turning to look outside. The interior of the bridge was bathed in the purplish glow of the Serpent Nebula. This was a talk she wasn't particularly looking forward to having. Eventually she sighed and turned back to the helmsman, "I was kicked out of the service, Jeff. What was I gonna say?"  
"Goodbye, maybe?" he said, voice carrying equal parts bitterness and sadness. "I missed you, you know. For a really long time, I couldn't get you out of my head."  
"Look, Moreau. What happened back then...we were both young. You were an officer, I was just a grunt, it was never going to work."  
"We could have at least _tried_," Joker said emphatically. "But then you just up and left."

Bethany winced at the pain evident in his tone and turned to face him again. Breathing deeply through her nose, she replied, "I know. I didn't realise you felt that strongly about me. If I had I would have kept in touch, truly I would have. I'm sorry."

Joker nodded, accepting the apology. "You know what always struck me as odd about us?"  
"Oh here we go."  
"The only reason we even connected with each other at all was because we both shared the same shift on the _Frisco's_ bridge. Me, doing my junior helmsman thing, you guarding the bridge from I don't know what."

Bethany laughed and the the simple joy it carried warmed the pilot to his core. It had always made him feel good to hear her laugh.  
"I was guarding the bridge from the utter boredom that was standing the last watch."

Joker nodded. Even with her hair cut regulation short and in uniform fatigues, PFC Shepard had been like a beacon of stunning femininity, bringing light to the drabness that was manning the bridge at 0300. Joker and Shepard initially connected after their shift had ended, sipping coffee in the mess and exchanging gossip and rumour.

With an effort, Bethany turned the subject away from the past. "So, heard any good scandalicious below-deck rumours?"

Joker smiled as he piloted the _Normandy_ further away from the Citadel, angling towards the mass relay. "Scuttlebutt says the nurse is more than a little curious about a certain dazzlingly beautiful Commander's sister."

Bethany blew out an exasperated breath. "That girl and I are going to have issues if she doesn't clamp down on her...urges."  
"Ohh, issues! That I like the sound of," Joker teased.

Bethany shot him the finger, "Sit on it, Moreau!" Joker chuckled and Bethany went on, "I don't know what I did to get her attention in the first place." Actually, she did: that little incident at Chora's that she was now having reason to regret. Most people, when they got smashed and did something really stupid, usually didn't remember it the following day, sparing themselves feelings of dire embarrassment and horror. Bethany remembered everything she'd ever done while drunk. In crystal-clear high-definition sound and video.

Joker chuckled again. "You don't know huh? That little strip you did is the eighth-most popular video on extrayoutubenet."  
Bethany's eyebrows went up, "Only eighth-most popular?" She would have thought her gyrating half-naked atop a bar belting out I Kissed A Girl would have been top five. At least.

"Well, there's this elevator security cam footage that was _accidentally _leaked onto the extranet - a whole gaggle of naked chicks just going at each other."

"In an elevator?"

"Oh yeah. Those Citadel elevators, you gotta do _something_ to pass the time while they're moving."

"Hmm."

"Yeah," Joker carried on, warming to his theme, "And this guy, I don't know _how _he pulled it off, but he managed to smuggle a camera into the Asari Consort's rooms. Like, into her innermost sanctum. Where she _entertains_ her most privileged clients. If you get my drift."  
Bethany nodded. She most certainly got his drift. And, she had to admit, she was more than a little curious. "And I suppose you just happen to have this footage on hand, huh, Joker?"

Joker beamed, "I thought you'd never ask." Joker punched up the footage, displaying it on a monitor that was usually used for important stuff like kinetic barrier integrity, but some things, like naked asari space prostitutes, had to take precedence.

Bethany crowded in close to the monitor. Onscreen, an asari wearing a silken blue robe stood with her back to the camera . Slowly, and very very erotically, the robe slid from her shoulders, puddling to the floor, revealing flawless blue skin, muscles flowing beneath like water.  
As the asari moved further into the sumptuously appointed room, a naked turian was revealed.  
"Whoa!" Beth's eyes widened at the sight of the alien reproductive organs. "That's something you don't see every day."

"Yeah, naked turian generals. Kinky, ain't it?" Joker deadpanned.

"Who is that guy? The turian?"

"Septimus Orraka."

"Lucky, lucky Septimus," Bethany murmured. On the screen, the Consort and General Septimus were locked in a passionate embrace. "How is she able to kiss him without those mandibles slicing her face off?"

"Lotta practice, I'd imagine," Joker said as he turned up the volume. After a series of moans and groans of the orgasmic variety, the turian general cried out, "Oh Sha'ira! You complete me!"

Bethany gasped with laughter, held a hand to her ribs. "Oh hell! _You complete me!_ God, Joker, I just about ruptured something..." she trailed off as more laughs overtook her ability to form coherent words. "Complete me!"

Joker, grinning broadly, cut the feed. Septimus' look of puppy-dog love was gone, replaced by the much more boring kinetic barrier readouts. Joker saw with a total lack of surprise that the barriers were still operating at peak capacity. God forbid the engineers have to do any actual work, beyond staring at the hypnotically rotating eezo core in the back.

"Oh man! I suppose that one's the most popular video?"

"And then some."

Bethany shook her head as she rose from her seat. She paused, looked at Joker and said carefully, "It felt good, clearing the air."

"Yeah."

"Think I'll catch some rack time," Bethany said and headed towards the sleeper pods.

Bethany's brother, in his wisdom, had assigned her a pod that was also used by Private Fredericks. Bethnay had asked that, since the ship was not fully crewed, wouldn't it be feasible for her to have a sleeper pod to herself? No, her brother had replied. He did not wish to be seen playing favourites with the crew. So she had to hot-bunk with Fredericks. Wonderful. Of all the things she missed most about her posting aboard the _San Francisco_ was the fact that, as a cruiser, it was large enough that each member of the marine complement had an individual bunk all to themselves. With pillows and everything.

When she arrived at 'her' pod, the red occupied light glowed. Bethany glanced at her watch. Yep, it was past time for the marine to be up and swabbing the decks or whatever the hell his shipboard duty was. Bethany rapped sharply on the opaqued surface of the pod. "Fredericks! What the hell are you doing in there, jerking off?"

The pod unsealed with a sharp hiss and Bethany stood back to give the occupant room to extricate himself from within. Fredericks' face was curiously red and a bit sweaty. He refused to look Bethany in the eye as he passed her. Bethany turned to the inside of the pod.

And backed away, hand going to her mouth in horror. _"Fredericks!"_The scream rang off the bulkheads. Serviceman Hinz, in the process of raising a mug filled with steaming coffee to her lips, jolted forward at the scream, hot liquid splashing her chest. "Ow!" she cried. She pulled the sopping uniform away from her skin, attempting to get a look at the damage.

Her creamy skin was turning a decidedly unhealthy red, like a boiled lobster. Beautiful. She manages to survive her first tour on an experimental ship _and_ a close encounter with a gigantic squid-shaped dreadnought from Hell completely unscathed only to scald herself with her own coffee. Worse, she realised, she'd probably have to see the nurse about some kind of topical ointment or something. And wouldn't Nurse Kitty just _love _the excuse to have Hinz remove her fatigues. And her bra. And _of course_, Nurse Kitty would _insist _on applying the ointment herself. Hinz closed her eyes. On second thought, she'd just soak a tea towel in cold water and press it against her chest.

Meanwhile, Bethany was storming through the ship, fists clenched, searching for Fredericks. Where _was _the little toad? She paused alongside Pressly, who eyed her curiously. Bethany, completely forgetting protocol, snarled at him, "Where the _fuck _is Fredericks?"  
Dumbfounded, Pressly merely pointed to where the man of the hour was attempting to make himself blend in with the bulkhead near a heat monitoring station. Bethany crossed the space between them muttering a string of curses alphabetically, grabbed the soldier by the ear and hauled him over to the Captain's cabin.

Shepard sat at the small desk in his cabin, reviewing intelligence and recon reports out of the Hades Gamma cluster. There were no reports of geth activity from the area. No reports of mad scientists breeding intelligent bugs either. But then, there had been no reports of geth on Eden Prime, and look how _that _had turned out. He sighed and rubbed his eyes. He wondered what Ash was doing, right at that moment. Probably disassembling, cleaning and reassembling one of the _Normandy_'s vast arsenal of firearms. He was surprised by how much he missed being able to just look at her from across the room. Never mind doing anything physical or even talking to her, right then, he would have given up a lot, just to be in the same room as her and be able to look at her.

He slapped himself in the face, hard. "Straighten up and fly right, Shepard," he told himself. . He wished all his problems were as easily solved by slapping himself in the face.

The door chime rang. "Come," he said, rising to his feet.

Bethany and Fredericks, the former still holding the latter by his ear, stood before the Captain's cabin. Bethany smacked the button beside the door, hard enough to leave her hand tingling. "Come," her brother's voice spoke.

Bethany turned her head to glare at Fredericks, "Don't," she ground out. He merely whimpered, his ear hurt rather a lot.

The door hissed open and Bethany herded her captive into the office. Shepard looked from his sister to Fredericks and felt his stomach sink. Things were going south already and they hadn't even cleared the first relay yet. He sighed. "Beth?"  
Bethany released her grip on the young marine's ear and he immediately began rubbing the circulation back into it. "You wanna tell him or shall I?" Bethany asked him. Fredericks merely looked down at the floor, shuffling his feet.

"Come have a look at this," Bethany addressed her brother, employing her patented Don't Screw with Big Sister voice. He nodded meekly and followed her out. The three of them stood before the suspect sleeper pod. Bethany, arms folded over her chest glared first at Fredericks, who was still looking down at the deck and then at the Commander. "Have a look and tell me what you see."  
Shepard leaned forward. He leaned back, rapidly. "Is that..?" he couldn't bring himself to say the word.

"It is," Beth confirmed. Fredericks gulped, looked mortified.

"There's so _much _of it," Shepard whispered, appalled. He'd seen a lot of shocking things in his time. Thorians? Husks? They paled in comparison to the sticky fluid coating much of the inside of the pod.

"I know," Bethany shook her head, amazed, "It's like Krakatoa just _exploded_. In his _pants_."

Shepard rounded on Fredericks, "What is the meaning of this, Private?"

Finally, the private rediscovered the ability to form coherent words, "I'm sorry, sir. I have this...condition."  
Bethany threw up her hands in disgust. "Let me guess. You're a sexoholic and because if you tried to have it off with any woman on board, she'd castrate you, you decided to _take matters into your own hands?_ So to speak?"

Fredericks just nodded silently. He felt a tear roll down his face. Oh, this was worse than that time his then-girlfriend had caught him in the bathroom with that lingerie catalogue.

"Private, fetch a mop and bucket and clean up your mess. Dis_missed_!" Shepard barked.

The distraught marine double-timed it away from the sleeper pods.

"I'm really sorry about his behaviour, sis. His last psych eval concluded that the counselling sessions seemed to have...cured his condition."

"Augie, you could cut off that man's wedding tackle and it wouldn't cure his condition. God," she muttered, glancing at the mess in the pod. She couldn't help but look. It was like driving past a horrific ten-car pileup on the expressway with tangled wreckage and bodies every which-way. "I am _not_ sleeping in that pod, Augie. I'm just not."

Unnoticed by either of them, Nurse Kitty had arrived just in time to overhear this proclamation. "You can sleep in _my_ pod," she said, voice teasing. "I won't mind one little bit. In fact, you could even sleep in the pod while I'm still in it!"

"I'll sleep in the frigging Mako! Yes, the Mako. And if either _you_," Bethany pointed at Kitty who by now had loosened the top two buttons of her uniform, revealing a V of skin, "Or Fredericks come near me, I'll shoot you in the head and dump your corpse out the motherfucking airlock!"

"Oooh," Kitty purred, "I _love_ it when a girl talks like that. It's _such_ a turn on!"

Bethany turned on her heel, leaving an amused Nurse Kitty and a stunned Commander Shepard behind her.

The next morning, Bethany awoke from her miraculously dreamless slumber and blinked at her surroundings, a little confused. Then things clicked into place. She was lying curled up in an old army blanket inside the crew compartment of the Mako because she'd flat out refused to sleep in the sleeper pod after Fredericks had...Yeah. Bethany yawned widely and sat up, rubbing sleep from her eyes and slid open the door to the passenger compartment.

It wasn't quite as comfy as her own queen-size mattress but the Mako's decking wasn't half-bad when employed as a bed. Bethany stretched, arching her spine like a cat, wincing a little at the various pops and crackles emanating from her spine.  
She became aware of three sensations, one after the other: one, she needed to use the ladies' Two, she needed a smoke. Three, she was being watched. Bethany was suddenly glad she didn't sleep in the nude as she turned to face her voyeur. Bethany was completely unsurprised to see that it was Nurse Kitty, smiling at her and holding a tray. The tray carried a steaming pot of coffee and a few slices of toast. _Breakfast in bed? Oh somebody kill me now!_

"Good morning, beautiful!" Nurse Kitty said and deposited the tray on the decking alongside the rover. Kitty seated herself cross-legged and poured a cup coffee. This she offered to Beth.

"What _are_ you doing?" Bethany asked. She tried for the tone of voice that suggested, _I'm prepared to do very nasty things to you of a decidedly non-sexual variety if you don't leave right now.  
_Kitty's smile didn't falter. Instead it ratcheted up a notch, dimples appearing in her cheeks. Bethany saw that the young woman had only just gotten up herself; she was still clad in a loose-fitting T-shirt and briefs. The briefs had little red love hearts on them. The T-shirt proclaimed its wearer to be World's Greatest Lover.

"Why, what does it look like, silly? I'm here to give you your breakfast!"

She was persistent, Beth had to admit and, speaking purely objectively, one woman admiring another's physical qualities in a totally non-sexual manner, the nurse possessed an incredibly cute smile and a body that would make men want to fall on their knees before her and praise God that He had seen fit to bless them with such an incredibly fine specimen of the female sex.

Beyond that, though, Nurse Kitty infuriated the hell out of Bethany.

Beth sighed, trying not to notice the way Kitty's eyes tracked the motion of her chest. "Look, Kitty. I'm flattered by all this attention. I really am but..." she trailed off, trying to find the best way to let the girl down. She'd seen those vids where the spurned girl takes decidedly violent and messy revenge against the one who'd spurned her.

"I'm not into women," she finally said. Yeah, that sounded reasonable. Oh sure, there was that one time when she was fifteen and kinda curious and had kissed Danielle Stanley while they were alone in the locker room after gym class but that had just been a couple of teenage girls experimenting, right? They hadn't even used tongue or anything. Both girls had decided, after the fact that, while the kiss felt nice, they both preferred boys. Even though all the boys they knew were a bunch of jerks.

Kitty seemed entirely unconvinced. She raised the coffee cup meant for Bethany to her lips and sipped from it, eyeing the other woman over the rim of the cup. "Honey, _everybody's_ into women."  
"No," Beth said firmly, "I'm not. I like men." And if her statement sounded just a little too loud then what of it? It might help her get through to the nurse.

Kitty smiled, lowered the coffee cup and picked up a slice of toast. She nibbled on it in a manner guaranteed to drive most people wild with desire. She knew, she practiced her technique whilst observing herself in the mirror. She even turned herself on.

"Sweetie, in my experience, sexuality is constantly shifting and changing. You may _think_ you're straight but are you really?"

"Yes," Bethany said flatly. _Except for that one time when I was fifteen._

"And you've _never_ felt the urge to...experiment? Never wondered how another woman's lips might feel, lightly brushing your own?"

Bethany's mouth went dry and she swallowed. It was way too early in the morning to be having this sort of conversation. "Like I said: I like men."

Kitty nibbled some more toast, sipped some more coffee. "Who are you trying to convince? Me or _yourself?"  
_Before Bethany could answer, Kitty put down the coffee cup and half-eaten slice of toast, rose smoothly to her feet and turned to leave. Bethany's gaze traced her barely-covered behind, and down the smooth contours of her legs. _Oh great, just fucking great. Now she's got you questioning your own sexuality for the first time in twenty years._

Looking back at her over her shoulder, Kitty said, "If you change your mind, you know where I am."

Bethany exited the Mako and a had cold shower. Then she had another one.

----

Later that day, as the _Normandy's_ crew went about their duties, the frigate's powerful sensor suite picked up an automated distress signal. The signal appeared to originate from within an asteroid field in the Dis system. Overnight, the _Normandy _had arrived in the Hades Gamma cluster and was currently FTLing its way to its destination with wild abandon.

_Normandy_'s CO was immediately on guard. In his recent experience, distress signals had turned out to be cunningly placed ambushes by the geth. On the other hand, it might actually turn out to be an actual distress signal from an actual ship with an actual crew. Either way, he had a duty to investigate it. If it was indeed a trap, it would be a great risk to any civilian craft who stumbled upon it and went to assist and if it was genuine then people were in danger.

Coming to a decision, Shepard made for the mess hall where most of the crew were finishing up lunch. "Beth? Can we talk for a minute?"  
His sister looked up at him, a strange, almost haunted look in her jade-green eyes. "Are you OK?" he asked as the remaining crew filed out to their stations.

_OK? Oh just dandy! I've only been sitting here wondering if I'm really a closet lesbian! Then there's the small matter of the fucking rachni!_

She sighed and the pained-sounding exhalation of breath made the Commander's throat tighten. He sat beside her and put an arm around her shoulders. She stiffened at first before giving in and resting her head briefly on his shoulder. "I'm fine," she said into his chest. "Really. I just have some things on my mind."

"Anything I can do to help?"

_Yeah, reassign Nurse Kitty with extreme prejudice_. Bethany knew that wouldn't help. Kitty had gotten under her skin. She couldn't stop thinking about her and those thoughts led in turn to that time she'd kissed another girl in the change rooms after gym class, twenty years earlier. One kiss, a mere brushing of her lips against another's and look how things were turning out. She cursed silently. She so didn't need this.

Shepard released his sister and put a business-like look on his face. "We've picked up a distress beacon and I've ordered Joker to vector us towards it."

Beth smiled, "Vector? Is that like a clever way of saying 'turn left?'"

"Yes," Shepard replied without a hint of irony.

"And you're telling me this, why?"

Shepard explained, "I thought you might appreciate the chance to get some combat experience before we hit our objective."

"Don't you usually bring Williams along on this sort of thing?" Beth was surprised that her brother was suggesting she come along. That had to breach any number of regulations from The Book. Bethany knew that, to her brother, The Book possessed an almost-holy importance. Bethany's sibling was By The Book personified.

"Gunnery Chief Williams is currently on off-duty status," Shepard declared.

"Good fucking God, do you actually talk like that around her at home?" Bethany gasped.

"D'you want to come along or not?" Shepard asked, feeling irate.

Bethany considered this. She _did_ need the combat experience, and, more importantly, she needed to distract herself from thoughts of Kitty. "I'm in."

"Suit up and meet me in the garage," Shepard said, rising from his seat.

Beth held up a hand, "Wait! What's my callsign?"

Shepard blinked, confused, "Callsign?"

"Yeah like _Breaker, breaker. This is Mama Bear calling her cubs. Come in, over."_

Shepard cocked his head, as though that might help his sister to make sense, "We don't use callsigns."

"Well, we can't _both_ be called Shepard - it'll confuse the hell out of everybody."

Shepard mulled this over. She had a point. "OK. I assume you have something in mind?"

Bethany's lips curled into a smile. "Vixen."

---

Bethany stood before Williams' station. The Gunnery Chief herself was up front with Joker at present, her duties currently squared away and Bethany took the time to plug her hardsuit into the diagnostics bay. While waiting for the checks to be completed, she picked up the hot-pink marker and scrawled some more slogans on her armour. _War does not determine who is right. Only who is left._

_Smith and Wesson: the original point and click interface_

_Going to war isn't about dying for your country; it's about making the other bastard die for his._

Finally, in capital letters, she carefully wrote VIXEN across her hardsuit helmet, above the visor.

The diagnostics bay bleeped and reported that the suit was in proper working order. For the amount of money it had cost, it would want to be. As she unplugged the cables from the interface ports set into the chest piece, Bethany became aware of light footsteps coming from the elevator. She turned, resigning herself to another encounter with Nurse Kitty. For a medical professional, the nurse spent an inordinate amount of time away from the medbay.

It wasn't the nurse. Liara T'soni stopped before her. "I understand you are going on the combat drop with Commander Shepard?"

"Yeah. Me, Augie and Tali." Beth smirked, "We're gonna kick ass and chew bubblegum."

"I...see. I came to wish you luck," Liara's voice was soft and Beth leaned forward to hear.

"Oh, thanks," Bethany's eyebrows rose a little. _That's uncommonly sweet._She began removing the armour from the workbench. Liara pointed at the intaglio of pink scrawl. "I see you have done more 'personalising'?"

"Oh hell yeah. Here," she offered the asari the marker. "There's some space over there," she indicated a piece of ceramel that would cover the lower abdomen. "Go ahead and write something."

"Oh, I couldn't possibly," Liara tried to hand back the pen. Bethany gently took her hand, pressed the pen into and closed the fingers over it. Looking into her eyes, she said, "I insist."

Hesitantly, Liara grasped the pen and after a moment's thought, bent over the workstation and inscribed something on the armour. She stepped away, handed the human back the pen. Bethany peered at the beautifully flowing script, a stark contrast to her own haphazard chicken scratchings. "What does it say?"

Liara stared down at the deck. "It is a prayer to the Goddess. Asari huntresses pray for strength in battle and to be able to return.." her voice caught and she swallowed, "return to the ones close to them," she finished, voice barely above a whisper.

Bethany was flattered that Liara would choose to write such a thing on her armour and in such neat handwriting to boot. She also felt a sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach. Liara was very obviously harbouring feelings for her and was having an excruciatingly difficult time expressing them. It was official then, Bethany was indeed the target of both the nurse and the asari.

"Thank you, Liara," she said. _This is bad. This is very very bad._

On balance though, if threatened at gunpoint to choose between Liara or Nurse Kitty, Bethany would opt for Liara. Beth was reasonably sure that Liara wouldn't try to slip a little something-something into her drink and do things to her while she insensate. Things involving latex gloves, handcuffs and honey drizzled all over her naked form.

Liara opened her mouth to say something then closed it and bade Bethany farewell.

Beth watched her go as she strapped into the hardsuit and secured her weapons. Eyes closed, she pounded her fist into the armour plate over her thigh. Could her life _be_ any more complicated? Bad enough she was some modern day oracle of doom, that she'd learned to get a handle on over the years but to be the target of the attentions of a lesbian nurse _and _an asari archaeologist? How in the name of all that was holy did that happen?

Had she suddenly slipped into some perverted alternate reality and, instead of being a being of flesh and blood, was, in actual fact, nothing more than a figment of the imagination of a sex-obsessed teenage boy? A teenage boy who was, even now, entertaining himself with fantasies of group sex featuring herself, Nurse Kitty and Liara? Hell, why stop there? Throw in Williams and her brother as well. Why not? A little imaginary incest never hurt anybody.

Bethany continued to pound her fist into her thigh. Her hand was beginning to ache, likewise her thigh. That was good. Pain distracted her from the whirling dervish of bizarre thoughts careening about inside her mind. A voice penetrated her thoughts. A voice from about two feet away.

"Beth?"

"Gah!" she screamed, eyes snapping open. "Fuck me!" she gasped, hand flexing painfully. "God, Augie, don't sneak up on me like that!"

"Why are you standing there beating your thigh?"

"You want the truth?" Might as well get the whole sordid mess out in the open, a problem shared and all. "The night I was dancing drunk at Chora's, Nurse Kitty happened to be there and now she's obsessed with me and has me a quarter of the way to being convinced I'm a lesbian."  
Shepard's mouth hung ajar.  
"Lesbian or bi-sexual," Beth shrugged, "Either way, Kitty wants to do me. With extreme prejudice. Now, it's become painfully obvious to me that _Liara_ also has a thing for me but, bless her, she's a lot less full-on than the nurse. Still, the whole thing, being come onto from two different directions, one of them non-human is beginning to get on my nerves, hence me pounding the crap out of my own leg. Happy now?"

Shepard didn't know what to say, "I don't know what to say."

Bethany shrugged her armoured shoulders. "Don't tell me a handsome fellow like yourself never found himself on the receiving end of come ons from two girls at once."

"Well, this one time at the academy..." he trailed off, remembering. The young women in question had actually come to blows over their mutual attraction towards him. There had been hair pulling and everything.

Shepard asked, "And how do _you _feel? About Kitty and Liara?"

"Feel? I'm confused, Augie. I'm very confused. I mean, if I were a guy, I'd be like, _Two hot chicks totally want to do me, I'm the best!_ But I was honestly convinced that I wasn't into women...and a part of me is kinda curious to know..." she trailed off. "Why the hell am I even telling _you_ all this, anyway?"

"Because I'm your brother and if you can't confide in your own family at a time like this, who can you confide in? Besides," Shepard went on, "Technically, asari are mono-gendered so Liara really isn't a woman at all."

"Augie, she looks like a woman, sounds like a woman and walks like a woman, ergo, she's a woman."

"That's an over-simplistic stereotypical view of the asari as a species," he objected.

"Fine, what about Kitty then? She's getting to me, Augustus. She really is getting to me. Part of me wants to smash her face into the bulkhead just to shut her up. But part of me...I kissed a girl once," she suddenly blurted out.

Her brother blinked repeatedly. "Ummm," he said, lost for words.

"Of course, this was twenty years ago and teenagers are supposed to be a little unsure of themselves at that age, right?" her voice pleading a little. When she received no reply, she repeated, "Right?"

"I suppose..."

"You're a big help. I don't know why I even bother," she said and stalked to the Mako.

Shepard walked to catch up, "Wait, I may have an idea."

Looking back over her shoulder, she replied, "About?"

"Whether you really are into women or it was just a phase you went through."

"Go on," she turned to face him.

Shepard's face reddened slightly at the thought, "When get back from the drop, log onto the extranet and um...visit a few...." his voice dropped to a whisper, "pornographic sites. See if you feel...you know...looking at the women."

Now Bethany blinked at him. "_That's_ your idea? Go surfing for porn?"

Shepard put his hands up as though to ward off a blow. "It's just an idea," he said weakly. She glared at him, brow furrowing. Then the brow smoothed out. "You may be onto something," she conceded. "Here's what we'll do: hook me up to a pulse monitor, if my heart rate starts going up looking at naked girls...then I may have a problem."

"Beth, it doesn't matter to me whether you like women or not."

She shrugged, "It matters to me. For my entire adult life, if asked whether I prefer men, I'd answer yes. Now...now I'm not so sure. And that scares me." Bethany shook herself, like a dog after a bath. "Let's go out and kill something."


	7. Chapter 7

Chaingun Cha Cha

Beth sat in the Mako's front passenger seat, observing as her brother made his slow, ponderous way through the pre-drop checklist. Dot every i and cross ever t, that was Augustus Shepard. In the crew compartment behind them, Tali'Zorah occupied the Mako's gun turret and would keep track of the sensors.

At first, Beth had been excited to be sitting high up in the Mako's cockpit, peering out through the thick viewports. After about half a minute, though, the excitement of looking out at the garage deck through the viewports wore off and she started to feel bored.  
"I don't remember combat being this _thrilling," _she said, "And by 'thrilling' I really mean 'dead boring.' You gonna drop the Mako or not?"

Shepard didn't look up from his checklist as he replied, "Alliance regulations stipulate that a full pre-mission check must be carried out prior to each drop."

Beth sighed and asked, "Zorah?"

"Yes, Bethany?"

"Are the kinetic barriers fully charged?"

Tali'zorah knew full well that they were but a lifetime as part of the quarian flotilla had taught her never to take things like hull and barrier integrity for granted and she double-checked her readouts. "Barriers are fully charged," she reported a second later.

"And the sensor suite, comm system and gunnery controls are all online?"

"Yes," Tali confirmed.

"OK, then," Bethany said, leaned across the centre console, grabbed the clipboard bearing the half-completed checklist from her brother and tossed it out the open hatch.

"Hey!" Shepard protested, "I wasn't finished yet!"

"Augie, look at me," Beth hissed, "The shields are charged, the sensors are online and the comm's working. We. Can. Go."

"But..." Shepard sputtered.

"_Now!"_

Shepard glared at his sister. Much as he loved her, he could never get his head around her impulsive behaviour. He sighed, defeated. Opening a comm line, he reported, "Joker, shore party reports ready for drop."

"Aye, aye, Commander," Joker replied and then they were falling through space.

"Express elevator to Hell! Going down!" Bethany shouted and whooped as the six-wheeled vehicle fell towards the surface of the asteroid from where the signal originated. Shepard closed his eyes and shook his head. The Mako's frame shuddered as the plasma jets ignited, slowing their descent speed so that, when they hit ground, they wouldn't end up splattered from one end of the asteroid to the other like so much strawberry jam.

The Mako hit the ground and Beth's restraints tightened up, preventing her from being flung out the front windows, her head going one way and the rest of her another. Her pulse raced and her hands were damp inside her gauntlets but all the same, she felt great. Beside her, the Commander put the vehicle into gear and the rover began trundling towards the source of the signal. Trundling very slowly.

Beth glanced at the digital display on the dashboard. They were travelling at a pulse-pounding twenty kilometres per hour. Beth blew out an exasperated breath and began tapping her fingers against her ablative plating. _Tap tap tappity tap tap. Tap tappity.  
_Commander Shepard glared at her, "Beth, that's really irritating," he snapped.

"Augie, you drive like an old woman," she shot back. "I could get out and run faster than this!"

"This from the woman whose license has been suspended for how many months?"

"Six," she grumbled.

"I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that."

"Six months!" Bethany spat.

Shepard nodded, "And why?"

"For driving at a hundred and ten in a ninety zone. Bastards."

"Perhaps Bethany is right in wanting to reach our destination in a more timely fashion?" Tali spoke up. Shepard made no reply, other than to increase speed dramatically, throwing them all back in their seats and causing much jouncing as the vehicle sped over the rocky terrain.

"Oh, so when Tali tells you to go faster, that's perfectly fine, is it?"

"When Tali asks me to speed up, she does so in a respectful manner," Shepard ground out.

"I respect you. I respect that you're a pain in the ass!"

"I'm picking up multiple element zero cores, bearing zero five nine," Tali reported. "Geth," she added needlessly.

"Oh what joy," Bethany muttered.

"At least we know it's a trap," Shepard pointed out.

"Yay us!"

Shepard pulled the Mako to a stop and inspected the readings. A dozen signatures. Eezo masses suggested no synthetic units heavier than shocktroopers. Shepard popped the hatches, "Let's go."

"On foot?" Bethany queried. "Why not just fire up the main gun and blow the suckers into orbit?"

"I want to try catching them off guard and if we go in on foot, we have a better chance of approaching undetected. Plus you get to play sniper."  
Bethany grinned beneath her helmet visor as she jumped to the ground. Little puffs of dust rose into the air, swirled briefly around her ankles. She removed the sniper rifle from the slot on her back, slapped a magazine of tungsten rounds into the receiver and cycled a round into the weapon. "Let's rock," she said.

"Comm check," Shepard ordered. "Tali, can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear, Commander."

"Bethany?"  
Silence. Shepard frowned, "Beth?"

More silence. Shepard sighed, she was going to make him call her by her callsign. "Vixen?"

"Charged and locked," she replied, a smile in her voice.

"Move out."

Arrayed before their position atop a rocky outcropping was a group of geth patrolling the area. Bethany peered through the optical sights of her rifle, observing the synthetics. "I have a clear line of sight," she reported, all business now. Shepard nodded, impressed. So, this was how to make his rebellious sister straighten up - drop her into a hot zone.

"Fire at will," he ordered.

"Aye aye," Beth acknowledged and squeezed off a shot, her first in ten years. And missed. The slug blew a crater the size of a dinner plate into the rocky terrain a half-metre from her target. "Dammit!" she hissed, as she chambered another round and fired again.

The rifle spat a high-velocity anti-armour round and downrange, the head of the geth on point blew apart soundlessly in the vacuum. Immediately, the remaining geth began searching for their attackers.

"Kill confirmed," she said, allowing the weapon to vent excess heat before firing another shot. Again a geth fell back, blue goo spraying its compatriots. "Two down."  
By now, the geth had found the source of the gunfire and a shocktrooper wielding a rocket launcher fired a shot at their direction. "Incoming!" Beth screamed, abandoning her position and running for cover. She was faintly aware of her brother and Zorah following after her. The warhead detonated, spraying pulverized rock and debris, the shock-wave like a giant hand shoving them off balance.

Recovering herself, Beth again sighted in on the advancing synthetics. The organics had the high ground and the tactical advantage. Beth dropped two more geth before the rifle overheated and she slot it away, opting for the assault rifle. Beside her, Shepard was aglow with a blue-white biotic corona and _that _was something to see, Beth thought. Geth were hurled backwards, lifted into the air and pulled into singularities.

Tali primed a tactical mine, selected her target, the rocket-wielding shocktrooper and hurled it. The burst of interference from the mine scrambled the geth's IFF, marking friendlies as hostiles and thus, open to an ass-whuppin' The white-armoured shocktrooper locked onto a pair of advancing enemy units and fired. The explosion lofted various synthetic bits and pieces high into the air; blue goo rained down...like rain.

Bethany whistled in admiration and rewarded Rocket Boy with a long burst from her assault rifle. Rocket Boy danced the chaingun cha cha, shuddering violently as the rounds slammed into its torso before it finally dropped, sparking. Bethany checked her head-up display. "We're clear, Commander," she reported. _Holy crap. I actually sounded like an actual proper soldier. I even called him 'Commander' and everything._ She smiled and said, "Bethany's back, baby!"

Inside the helmet of his Predator L hardsuit, Commander Shepard smiled. "You did good, sis," he complimented her. "You too, Tali."

"We still have to locate the distress beacon and disable it, before civilians are killed," Tali reminded them.

"We'll take the Mako," Beth said. "And this time, I'm driving."

---

Williams sat in the bridge alongside Joker, making a point of _not _showing undue interest in the shore party's hardsuit status and vital signs as displayed on a bridge monitor. The Skipper knew what he was doing, she told herself, he was perfectly fine and, though technically not a solider, Beth had been through the same basic training as Williams and from what the telemetry was telling her, also knew how to handle herself, having notched up four kills already.

Joker watched the telemetry with more than his usual professional detachment. That was his old girlfriend down there, being shot at. Sure, they'd both moved on but still, old girlfriend. Both Joker and Williams turned as Liara entered the bridge. "Lieutenant Moreau, Chief Williams," she greeted them. Joker had long since given up trying to get Liara to call him Joker. "How are they doing?" Liara asked.

"Fine and dandy," Williams assured her. With a small smile she added, "Bethany's nailed four of the synthetic bastards already."

Williams considered Liara for a moment before turning back to the telemetry. Scuttlebutt suggested Dr T'soni was a bit infatuated with the Commander's sister. Unfortunately for Dr T'soni, the infatuation seemed to be one-sided. There were also rumours to the effect that Nurse Kitty had designs on Bethany as well. Williams shook her head. The nurse struck her as a little off. Williams had gone to her once with a mild temperature and Kitty had wanted her to take her fatigues off. Williams had beat a hasty retreat and waited until Dr Chakwas had been back on duty.

"It must be...difficult for you. To be up here while down there, the Commander is putting himself at risk. And you being unable to do anything to help," Liara spoke quietly. She felt a thread of true fear worm through her. Part of her accepted that Bethany would never see her as anything more than a friend. Perhaps even a very close friend but still, she felt so helpless, seeing them fighting while she was stuck in orbit.

Another part of Liara, the deeper, animal part of her being was aware of the 'scuttlebutt' surrounding Nurse Kitty's interest in Bethany. Liara could bear simply being friends with Bethany. She wasn't sure she could bear the knowledge that Bethany and Nurse Kitty were...together.

Williams turned around in her seat and eyed the asari, "She'll be OK," she said quietly. "They all will be." Liara nodded silently and left.

---

Back aboard ship, Bethany was buzzing with the adrenaline high, pacing back and forth across the floor of vehicle bay and spouting quotes from some old movie or other. Shepard shook his head as he observed her.

"Check it out! I am the _ultimate _badass! State of the badass art! You do _not_ want to fuck with me!"

Turning abruptly on her heel, Bethany closed with her brother, planted a kiss on his forehead and said, "Let's go look at some naked chicks!"

Shepard fiddled with the heart rate monitor, making sure the leads weren't under foot and peeled the backing from the adhesive pads. "Pull up your top," he ordered his sister. They were in the Captain's cabin, the door locked. It wouldn't do them any good at all to be seen trawling through smutty extranet sites devoted to objectifying men and women but, now that the idea had been planted her mind, Bethany was determined to see this through.

Bethany complied, trying not to think about how weird it was, having her brother's hands stick electrical wires to her chest.

"OK, we're good to go," Shepard said, eyeing the readout. "Your heart rate's a little up. Try to relax," he said.

"We just got back from bitch-slapping a group of geth. I'm still jazzed!" she replied before beginning a series of deep breaths. After a little while, her heart slowed to normal.

"So, you want to go to the girly sites first?" Shepard inquired as he connected to the extranet via comm buoys.

"Might as well get it over with," she ground out.

Shepard paused, hands above the keyboard.

"Don't tell me you don't have a whole list of porn sites stored inside that over-sized mutant brain of yours," Bethany teased.

Shepard frowned. "I live with a beautiful, loving woman," he said, "I don't _need_to ogle naked women on the extranet!"

Beth snorted laughter. "You're a man. Ogling naked women is hardwired behaviour. OK, try Schoolgirls Gone Wild," she said. Her brother eyed her carefully, "This guy I used to work with had a real fetish for the squeaky clean schoolgirl look. It just came to mind."  
Shepard typed in the address and soon enough, women who most definitely were not schoolgirls filled the screen in various stages of undress.

"What is with men and that whole plaid skirt thing?" Bethany asked. "No girl _I_ went to school with ever dressed like that." She paused, head cocked to one side, listening to the heart monitor. _Bleep Bleep Bleep._ Good. Nice and regular.

"How old do you think she is?" Bethany asked, indicating one particular peroxide blonde who carried so much silicone she could probably open her own breast-enhancement clinic.

"Twenty-five?" Shepard guessed, swallowing. God help him but some of those women were rather comely. Not that he was into that kind of thing. The objectification of women for the sexual gratification of men was shameful. But still, that brunette was quite fetching and she had really nice eyes. He was suddenly struck by a vision of Ash wearing one of those schoolgirl outfits and gulped.

"Thirty, more like," Beth said, pulling him back to the matter at hand. "Damn, how insecure would you have to be to want boobs _that_ big? God, how are they able to even stand up straight?" _Bleep Bleep Bleep_ went the monitor. Still nice and stable. That was good. That was the cat's miaow.

Bethany smiled, "How are _you_ going? Feeling turned on? A little _hot?_"

"No! Not at all!"

"Shyeah, right. You're picturing Ash in one of those outfits, aren't you? That's fine. Just don't picture _me_ in one."  
_Oh no_ Shepard thought. Unbidden, an image of his own sister in a schoolgirl outfit arose in his mind's eye. And, heaven help him, his sister was _hot_. "Uh, maybe we should try one of the male sites?" he suggested.

Bethany shrugged. She'd never felt _less_ turned on than she did right now. "Go ahead."

"Oh. My. God," she breathed a couple of minutes later, drinking in the slabs of beefcake arrayed before her. "Oh. My. _Fucking_._ God!" _The bleeps from the monitor immediately began speeding up. Within moments her resting heart rate had jumped by quite bit. And she was just _looking_ at the guys.

"Would you look at the _size_ of that thing?" she gasped, leaning in towards the screen.

Shepard frowned at her, concerned. It wasn't right, him watching her get all excited like this. It was wrong on so many levels. "How is he able to get his pants on?" Bethany marvelled, feeling her pulse race.

"Size isn't everything," Shepard muttered, arms crossed. "It's how you use it."

Bethany laughed, "Yeah, you keep telling yourself that. Oh_ baby,"_ she squealed. "Look at the six-pack on _you_!" She laughed again and fanned her face with her hands. "Hubba-hubba!"

"Beth, why is it acceptable for women to objectify men but not for men to objectify women?"

"Please! What man wouldn't want girls drooling all over his hot, silken, oiled up pecs? Ohhh..."

"That's it! This exercise is over!" Shepard declared and cut the connection.

"Spoilsport," Bethany protested as she peeled the monitor pads from her chest. "Don't forget to clear the cache out. I'd hate for somebody to think the first human Spectre had a secret yearning for the male of the species."

"Well, Sis. I think you can relax. According to this extremely unscientific test, you're very definitely into men."

"I'll say," Bethany agreed. "I know what I'll be dreaming of tonight!"

---

After breakfast the following day, Bethany sat alone at the mess table, her remaining packet of cigarettes before her. She was doing it, she was actually quitting. She didn't feel any great happiness about it though. She was giving up the cancer sticks out of necessity was all. Quitting was like farewelling an old friend. A friend who was constantly taking her money and in return was slowly killing her. But still, a friend. A companion who'd always been there to offer her comfort in the form of a tube of tightly packed tobacco leaves.

Beth sighed. She felt sad to be honest. Smoking was one of those guilty pleasures people had - like reading trashy magazines or watching chick-flicks and overindulging on chocolate ice-cream. Or, if you were a man, partaking of a little one-handed net surfing and ogling air-brushed girly pics. Bethany heaved another sigh, clenched her right hand into a fist and began hammering it onto the innocent cigarette pack. Innocent if an observer chose to overlook the cancers and emphysema, nicotine-stained fingers and the all-pervasive miasma of stale tobacco that clung to a smoker like an invisible mist.

Suddenly, Beth was very glad she'd made the decision to quit smoking. She smiled a little and kept hammering the cigarette packet until it was smashed flat, the cigarettes bent, broken and crushed. Little shreds of tobacco spilled from the wreckage. Bethany sighed, contentedly this time. Oh sure, the cravings would be hellish and she'd need to find something to keep her fingers occupied and keep a stock of chewing gum on her at all times but she thought she'd get through it OK. She'd been through worse and survived, hadn't she?

Whistling happily, Bethany swept the erstwhile cigarette pack into a waste bin and walked out of the mess, not looking back. Five minutes later, standing just outside the CIC, she felt the urge to light up seize her in its iron grip. Gritting her teeth, Bethany removed a packet of nicotine patches from her pants pocket, removed one and slapped it to her throat, right over the carotid artery. She figured that'd help get the nicotine into her bloodstream a little quicker. Next, she unwrapped a piece of sugar-free spearmint flavoured gum and popped it into her mouth. _Chew chew chew OW! I bit my tongue!_

Needing something to take her mind off smoking, Bethany rode the slowest elevator in the known galaxy to the garage, intending to upgrade her weapons and armour. Unfortunately, the workstation where one would reasonably expect to be able to upgrade weapons and armour was currently unavailable. Williams, in preparation for whatever the Dis system might throw at them, had decided to pull maintenance on every weapon and hardsuit on board and would be occupying the workstation for roughly the next eighteen standard hours. And that was if she chose to forgo using the bathroom.

So Bethany collected her gear and rode the galaxy's slowest elevator back up to the mid-deck. Her brother would likely have a fit if he caught her using the mess table to upgrade her gear but it wasn't as though she had a lot of options left - the engine room where she'd be in danger of being hypnotised by the rotation of the eezo core, the medlab where she'd be in danger of being drugged and set upon by Nurse Kitty or Augie's own cabin where she'd be in danger of him banging on about regulations until her head felt like it would explode.

So, mess it was then. Beth settled back into her seat, unfolded her sniper rifle and set it before her. _Death From Afar _had been lasered into it, courtesy of Ash. Beth was in the middle of fitting a scramrail to the weapon when she heard soft footsteps approaching. She turned her head to see Liara approach. "Hi," she said.

"Oh, I wasn't expecting you to be working here. I can leave if I'm in the way?"

Bethany gestured to the seat opposite, "Please, sit. I was just upgrading my gear."  
Liara sat and silently watched the human at work. Bethany's hands, lightly stained with lubricants were difficult to look away from. Her long, nimble fingers, topped with red nail-polish, seemed to all but dance across the sniper rifle. To Liara, it was like watching a master harpist plucking strings and creating music to move the very soul. _Goddess preserve me!_

Beth looked up from her work, mistaking the look of rapture in the asari's eyes for an intense interest in firearms. "I'm fitting scramrails onto this," she explained. "A sniper rifle with one scramrail kills your target. A sniper rifle with _two _scrammies kills your target and anything unfortunate enough to be standing directly behind it." She paused before saying, "It's awesome to see."

Liara blinked, "I see..."

Bethany laughed lightly, "It's cool, you don't have to pretend to understand."

Liara's skin deepened as she spoke, "May I ask a personal question of you?"

"Sure," Beth replied, collapsing the rifle and resting it beside the table. Next she picked up and unfolded the shotgun. A single word had been etched into it: _Boomstick_. Beth considered possible upgrades. Probably the best combination might be a scrammie and frictionless materials to reduce heat build up.

Liara took a deep breath. This was the question that would decide whether she even had, as Chief Williams was wont to say, a snowball's chance in Hell with Bethany. "Bethany...is there a...Mister Shepard?"

Intent on her work, Bethany didn't look up and thus didn't see the look of earnest longing on Liara's face. "Sure," she began. Unseen, Liara's face fell. "But we usually just call him 'dad' or by rank if it's a formal occasion."

Liara let out a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding. "Oh. I meant...is there somebody special in your life?"

Bethany snapped the scramrail into the upgrade housing on the shotgun. "Aside from my family?"

"Yes."

Bethany shrugged, "Only Mister Darcy."

"Oh...he is your partner?" Liara asked quietly. She didn't want to know. But at the same time, she _had_ to know. The pain as her hopes were crushed would be easier to bear than the uncertainty of not knowing she reasoned with herself. She was surprised by Bethany's laugh.

"Ah, no, Liara. Mister Darcy's my dog. Rottweiler. I love him. Rotties are beautiful, intelligent animals and you can train them to kill people. What's not to love?"

_Her dog! Mister Darcy was a pet dog! Oh Goddess, thank you! Thank you!_

Bethany laid the shotgun aside, reached for a sidearm. A thought struck her. It occurred to her that the thought should have struck a good deal earlier. "Why do you ask?"

"May I speak plainly?"

Bethany bit her lower lip. "I think that would be best."

"Bethany, I find myself...drawn to you and I cannot say why," Liara began, wide blue eyes holding Bethany's green ones.

_Well golly gee fuck! There it is. She's coming onto me. At least she isn't sitting there half-naked and trying to mind-fuck me._

Feeling extremely awkward, Liara reached out her right hand and gently laid it on Bethany's. She immediately jerked it away as though it had burned her. "I am sorry, I should not have done that!"

"Yeah, that lubricant's a bitch to clean off. Seriously Liara, I'm flattered that you're interested in me but..." Did she really want to do this? Just say _I want to be friends _and just stomp all over Liara's hopes and dreams?

Bethany closed her eyes and cursed silently. Things like this were why she'd long since given up on relationships. Too complicated. These days, it was just her and Mister Darcy. Dogs were everything people weren't - unfailingly loyal, incorruptible, and, when compared to some of the men she'd lived with, had impeccable grooming.

"You just want to be friends?" Liara said for her. "I..understand."

"Liara I'd like for us to be friends. And not just friends you call up when you want to bitch about how shit your life is but real, proper friends. I don't want for things between us to be...compromised by...other things. I'll understand if you can't do that but I'd be grateful if you could."

As she spoke, Bethany wiped her hands on a cloth and gently took Liara's hand in a sisterly manner. She felt Liara's muscles tense up then relax. Liara nodded mutely. "I would like that, Bethany. I would like for us to be 'proper friends.'"

"I'm glad," Bethany said and smiled. She felt a weight she hadn't know she'd been carrying suddenly lift from her. Crisis averted. She'd quit smoking and negotiated love's rocky road, all in the space of a couple of hours. Bethany smirked. She rocked. Hard.

"But what of you and Nurse Kitty? Are you two 'an item'?"

"Nurse Kitty is every fifteen year old boy's wet dream come true. Too bad for her I'm not a fifteen year old boy." Beth shook her head. "I'm not into women, Liara. She tried to make me think I was and I was even part of the way there but my brother helped me realise I'm not."

"How did the Commander make you realise?" Liara gasped.

"I hope you're not thinking Augie and I did the nasty. Because that would be so wrong on so many levels."

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to imply...that.."

Bethany raised a hand, "Actually he wired me up to a heart monitor and we looked at pictures of naked chicks on the extranet."

"I'm afraid I do not understand."

"Alright. You know how when you look at a person you find really attractive and you can feel your heart start to pound in your chest?"

Liara averted her eyes, said simply, "Yes."

"Augie figured that if my engine started to rev looking at pictures of naked chicks, then it might mean-"

"That you are 'into' women?"

"Yeah. Real scientific ain't it?" Bethany drawled.

"What happened?" Liara leaned forward, interested in this peculiar experiment.

"At first, nothing. So we started looking at pics of naked men. Hooo boy, that heart monitor started beeping like mad. Hell, my pulse is up just thinking about some of those boys."

"So you can be reasonably sure that you are not..what is the term, happy?"

Bethany snorted laughter. This was turning out to be the oddest conversation she'd had in a while. "Gay. The term is gay. Or lesbian if you're a chick." Liara just blinked in confusion. She felt that, even if she devoted the next five hundred years of her life to the task, she would still be no closer to understanding humans.

---

"Commander, we're an hour out from the co-ordinates. Looks like it's coming from an asteroid field," Joker reported in.

Standing beside Pressly in the CIC, Commander Shepard nodded, "Activate the stealth systems."

"Aye aye, Commander."

As the stealth systems came online, masking the _Normandy's_ emissions, a faint hum could be heard briefly throughout the ship as the power output from the drive core spiked.

"Any signs of geth ships in the area?" Shepard asked, examining results from a scan Hinz was running.

"Negative," Joker reported. "Either they already came and left and we missed the party,"

"Wouldn't _that_ be a crying shame," Beth muttered from behind her brother. He smiled slightly.

Joker went on, "Or they haven't arrived yet."

"Anything from the asteroid itself? Any distress beacons?" Shepard queried.

"Sir," Hinz spoke up, "I'm picking up energy signatures from the asteroid. The signatures indicate a standard Alliance-issue science facility. No distress signals either." Hinz pushed back a strand of black hair behind her ear before shooting a glance at Shepard's sister. Maybe she was wrong and the whole trip would be a wild goose chase. Hinz shrugged. They were getting paid either way.

Shepard turned to Beth and spoke quietly so they wouldn't be overheard. "Are you sure this is the right area of space?"

Hands shoved deep into her pockets, Beth rocked back on her heels before answering. "A hundred percent sure? No. But you have to admit that the presence of an installation where there shouldn't be one is kinda iffy, yeah?"

Shepard nodded. "We need to work out squad assignments," he said.

"What do you recommend?"

Shepard answered, "I'll be bringing Williams and Private Fredericks with me. I want you to lead squad two."

Bethany's jaw dropped open, revealing a wad of thoroughly chewed gum lying limply on her tongue. She snapped her mouth closed and resumed chewing. "Me? A squad leader? Dunno if you checked my files but I was never a squad leader," she paused, "Except for those three hours back in '73 after Corporal Kristy took a round through the chest. She gave me a kind of resigned look as the medic went to work and said, 'guess you're in charge now' and passed out. Hell!"

Shepard laid a hand on her shoulder, looked into her eyes, "Beth, I have faith in you. You could have been an officer, if you'd gone through OCS."

Bethany laughed, "Now you're just taking the piss. I barely passed high school. Officer Candidate School? Us grunts learned to fear newly-minted second lieutenants right out of the academy. So full of their own self-importance and intent on showing some general or admiral just how good they are at getting their troops killed. Officers," she spoke the word with a kind of weary loathing. "Ah, no offence."

Shepard shrugged. "I think you should include Liara and Tali'zorah. I like to bring a balanced team with me. Since I can handle biotics and most technical issues, I usually bring along Williams."

"You bring along Williams so you can ogle her butt while she's on point," Bethany teased. "But yeah, I see your point. I'll ask them if they want to place their lives in my hands. I'm sure they'll be thrilled," she deadpanned.

Beth leaned against the mess hall table, chewing a ration bar. The foil packaging declared the ration bar to be blueberry flavoured. Instead it tasted to Bethany like cardboard soaked in water and liberally sprinkled with sawdust. She smiled to herself as her jaw worked; some things never changed. Seated nearby were Tali'Zora and Liara. Bethany had chosen the mess to brief her 'squad' because it seemed like a nice relaxed place.

The small digital music player Bethany had brought aboard sat on the table, playing Oasis' _D'you Know What I Mean?_ Bethany hummed along to the chorus, thinking it rather apt:

All my people, right here, right now  
D'you know what I mean? Yeah yeah  
All my people, right here, right now  
D'you know what I mean? Yeah yeah, yeah yeah

She shut the player off, wrapped the foil around the remainder of the ration bar and tucked it into her pocket. Dusting her hands on her blouse, she turned to the asari and quarian. Liara looked steadily at her. Tali's visor looked blankly at her. Bethany leaned forward, checking her reflection in the visor. She noticed a small piece of waterlogged cardboardy sawdust lodged between her teeth and extricated it with the tip of her tongue. Beth smiled; Tali was like having a portable mirror along. A portable mirror that could hack geth CPU cores and blow their arms off with a point-blank shotgun blast.

"So, we're making this drop to the research station and we have next to no idea what we'll be facing. Look, I'll level with you both: I have almost no experience leading a squad and just between us girls, I think my brother's lost his everloving mind, putting me in charge like this."

Tali spoke up then, "Commander Shepard is a shrewd judge of character, Bethany. If he feels you can handle the responsibility then you should trust his judgement."

Liara nodded agreement, "Tali is right. We have faith in you." Liara resisted the urge to lay a reassuring hand on her friend's arm. This wasn't right place for such gestures.

Bethany shrugged. "I appreciate the support but to be blunt, if I fuck things up, in all likelihood, it'll be you two who pay for my mistakes. So, I'm asking you...actually, I'm _ordering_ you to pull me up if I tell you to do something stupid. Pull me up and bitch-slap me."

Liara nodded, more to appease Bethany than anything else. "Very well. We will 'bitch-slap' you if you order us to do something foolhardy."

Beth looked from Liara to Tali and spoke, "Alright, then. Here's the rules of engagement: if it has more than two legs, shoot it. If it's synthetic, shoot it. If it points a gun at you, shoot it. If it looks at you funny, shoot it. Basically..."

"Shoot everything?" Tali asked doubtfully. Though most of the engagements she'd been involved in with the Commander had indeed resulted in their being forced to shoot everything that moved, the Commander always attempted to mediate issues peacefully.

Bethany shrugged, "Like I say, I'm not cut out for this. I'd be better off in Augie's squad and you two would be better off with Williams in charge."

This time, Liara _did _place a reassuring hand on her friend's arm. The simple contact was nice; Bethany's arm was warm and the feel of the fine hairs against Liara's hand sent a thrill up her spine. "Bethany, you asked us to bitch-slap you if you did something stupid. Doubting yourself and your abilities at this point _is_stupid." Liara looked into the other woman's eyes. Eyes that were a little wider than before, the pupils dilating.

Bethany inhaled a deep breath, blew it out slowly. She nodded once, firmly. "You're right. You're right. Thanks."

Liara nodded silently. Bethany continued her half-assed briefing, sounding more sure of herself. "Alright. Zorah, you're handling tech support and jamming hostile weapons and shields."

Tali nodded. "Liara, you're on crowd control duty."  
The asari's head tilted to one side, a silent question.

"I mean, use your biotic jujitsu to break up enemy movements - throw 'em back, levitate the bugs or whatever it is you do."

"Oh yes, I understand."

Beth crossed her arms over her chest, counting the number of ways this op could go wrong. She stopped counting when she hit 176 - she was depressing herself. In a way, she was the perfect person to lead Liara and Tali - neither of them possessed any kind of formal military training that she knew of yet both had survived countless battles and skirmishes whilst aboard the _Normandy_. Of course, they'd had a certain Spectre backing them up. Pushing her thoughts aside, Bethany stood up, straightened her uniform pants and gestured for the others to fall in. "Let's get suited up."


	8. Chapter 8

8. Call Him Paranoid

Dr Savrashi stood before the sealed door leading into the number four bio-hazard lab, the single most secure place on the asteroid. The lab, located deep within the asteroid's crust was designed to able to withstand a direct hit from a nuclear weapon. Of course, everything else connected to it would be annihilated but the research budget only extended so far. Besides, he mused, this far from any colonies, the researchers would (hopefully) be beneath the notice of any pirates or raiders.

And, in the extremely unlikely event of a catastrophic failure in containment protocols, the lab, and everything in it, could quickly and easily be purged of all life, courtesy of a handy self-destruct program. No fuss, no muss and most certainly no loose contaminants running about munching on peoples' heads. While their owners were still alive, no less. The Noveria 'incident' had taught the researchers well.

Savrashi placed the palm of his right hand to the biometric scanner mounted beside the door. Then he leaned forward into the retinal scanner, simultaneously placing his left hand into a slot by the door, whereupon a small needle pricked his skin, collecting a DNA sample. What next? He rolled his eyes. The head of security, an intensely paranoid man had wanted to include in the list of door-opening protocols a urine test to screen for mind-altering drugs. Just in case the researchers might decide to pop a few party drugs before going off to the labs, professing their love for everybody.

Savrashi had managed to talk the security chief around to just the palm scanner, retinal scanner and DNA test.

"Why would we even need a DNA test at all?" Savrashi had asked the intensely paranoid security chief, a fellow named Barnes.

"It's simple isn't it? To make sure you're you. And not some cunningly made facsimile. I won't have fake researchers gaining access to the test subjects. Not on _my _watch."

Barnes' eyes were constantly flicking back and forth in his strained-looking face as he searched out threats. That no threats were immediately imminent did not relax Barnes. In fact, the lack of a perceptible threat made him even more antsy. A threat he could detect, he could act upon. A threat he _couldn't_ detect, well that was something rather troubling, wasn't it?

Savrashi had tried to point out when they'd begun their work here that the fact Barnes wasn't seeing any threats was because there were no threats.

"Yes, and as soon as I let down my guard and indulge in the luxury of putting my feet up and having a nice cup of tea...BAM!" Barnes shouted, causing Savrashi to jump a foot into the air. "Then we'll be up to our collective ass in everything from geth, loose bugs and, for all I know, the guards indulging in mind-expanding substances and trying to mate with their own assault rifles. No, Doctor. You may call me paranoid, but," and here Barnes dropped that old classic, "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean the bastards aren't out to get you."

Savrashi sighed, "Barnes. There _are_no bastards. Nobody knows we're here. This facility is cut off from the extranet as a security precaution."

Barnes leaned forward, black eyes darting back and forth in their sockets, "Doctor," he breathed, "There are _always_ bastards."

Savrashi rolled his eyes at the memory as _finally_ the VI decided he was actually who his ID said he was and deigned to open the door. "Access granted," the VI informed him. He rolled his eyes again. _Bloody thing, always stating the obvious_.

"Well, how are we today?" he asked as he entered the secure bio-hazard lab. Behind him the door sealed shut. The rachni, contained as they were behind stasis fields, regarded him passively. It had taken much work but this batch of the aliens were quite calm and docile. Until they were pointed at a target and told to kill it. Then they became like rabid dogs. Minus the foaming at the mouth and the such.

Savrashi walked past the rows of rachni in their cells to another of the research team, Christabel, a charming and intelligent young woman who also had the misfortune, at least in Savrashi's view, of possessing a rather generous figure. Such things tended to distract the other staff from their work and Savrashi'd had to verbally reprimand the junior personnel on more than one occasion after he'd witnessed them ogling young Christabel instead of carrying out their tasks.

Savrashi himself was above such things. He was happily married and besides, his wife would brutally murder him if she even thought he was eyeing off another woman. Especially one young enough to be his daughter. Christabel turned to him as he approached. "Doctor, the latest units are ready for field-testing."

"Most excellent," Savrashi answered, reading the latest test results from over Christabel's shoulder. The rachni were now reliably obeying directives from their handlers and incidences of said handlers being killed and eaten by the rachni had decreased five-fold. That was a very good thing as Savrashi was fast running out of handlers and, understandably, few people wanted to take their place. Death by Rachni was not how most people wanted their tickets punched. Death by Extreme Sex with Christabel was probably in most peoples' top five ways to go out.

It reminded Dr Savrashi of that old joke, _I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather. Not screaming all the way like the passengers in his car._

Christabel turned from her console, eyeing the rachni behind the stasis fields. She ran a hand through her brown hair. Her fingernails were quite short and ragged, the result of their being compulsively chewed on. Intellectually, the young scientist knew there was no way the subjects could breach the stasis fields. But still, they made her nervous. She would have preferred the rachni to be locked behind six-inch thick reinforced quadranium doors. Quadranium reinforced with even _more_quadranium, even. One couldn't be too careful. Christabel had read what few reports were available on the Noveria incident. Containment failed, the rachi got loose and pretty much killed everybody.

Savrashi mistook her look of controlled fear for one of admiration, "Exquisite aren't they?" By his tone of voice, he may well have been referring to a particularly nice pair of diamond earrings.

"Exquisite?" Christabel wasn't sure she'd heard the elder man correctly. _Exquisite at killing things, sure._

"They are perfectly adapted for the express purpose of breeding, acquiring and holding new territory and defending that territory from all comers."

Christabel frowned slightly and decided to speak her mind, "Sir, if those things get out of those cells," she waved a hand at the rows of stasis cages, "they'll decimate every living thing in this station in a matter of-" she stopped as Savrashi cut her off with a raised hand.

"I am well aware of the risks, young lady," he snapped patronisingly. "But all that aside, they _do_ make for the most interesting scientific studies, don't you agree?"  
Christabel nodded wordlessly. It was far too late for her to be having second thoughts.

---

Barnes stood in the security office, hands clasped behind his back. Office perhaps didn't do the room justice. In reality, the room, crammed from end to end with monitors displaying datasteams from cameras and security drones and tracking consoles, was more like the nerve-centre of the facility's security forces. If something was going to happen, one of the teams, on-station round the clock, twenty-four-seven would know about it here first.

Twenty-four-seven, Barnes mused. What a horrendously stupid way of communicating twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. How much time was saved by saying twenty-four-seven anyway? Maybe a second? Two at the most?

Barnes shook his head, hoping to clear it of extraneous thoughts. Something was up. And, he was certain, it wasn't just his usual feelings of paranoia and non-specific dread. He happened to be looking at a monitor displaying sensor traces from the surrounding area when something flickered onscreen for the barest of seconds.  
"What's that?" he barked, causing the sensor operator to jump a little in his seat.

"What was what?" the operator replied.

"That! There!" Barnes stabbed a finger at the now-blank screen. "I saw a trace just a second ago. It was there and then it wasn't."

"O...Kay," the operator replied, looking over his shoulder at Barnes. _The old guy's finally losing it,_ he thought as he turned back to his instruments. "It's probably just a ghost contact."

Barnes folded his arms over his broad chest. "Run a diagnostic," he ordered.  
The operator complied and the diagnostic reported the system was clean, A-OK, tip-top and so on and so forth.

Barnes grunted non-committally. Then a young woman manning (or would it be womanning?) the comm spoke up, "Receiving a transmission from a scout unit in the field. Patching it through."

_"This is Daniels reporting. We have visual on an unknown spacecraft making for the complex. It dropped a couple of..things. We're moving to investigate, over."_

"Unknown spacecraft?" Barnes repeated. _That_ must have been the trace he'd seen. Finally! After all these sleepless nights, the semi-solid excrement was readying itself to interface with the air recirculation units. Barnes crossed to a microphone racked on the wall, "This is Security Chief Barnes. All personnel be advised, we are now at Amber Alert Level. All off-duty personnel are ordered to return to stations and await further orders."

Barnes rubbed his hands together. He wasn't exactly _happy_that his unit had encountered possible hostiles but at least people wouldn't whisper behind his back about him being a paranoid whackjob any longer. Then the woman womanning (or was it politically correct to say manning?) the comm spoke up again, voice rising in excitement, "Sir, another transmission from Daniels."

"Patch it through, Connel."

_"Command, Daniels! Report contact with geth! Repeat, we have contact with geth!"_Then a wave of ear-shattering static burst across the comm frequency. Connel swore, tearing away the headset and tossing it aside.

A person could have heard a pin drop, the silence following the panicked transmission was total.

Barnes rubbed his suddenly tired, aching eyes. Geth. He could almost hear the shit hitting the fan.

---

Bethany sat in the _Normandy's_comm room along with her 'squad.' Beth bit down on her lower lip, fighting the wry smile that wanted to surface. Her squad - a failed soldier-slash-model-slash-escort-slash herald of doom, an asari scientist and an adolescent quarian who'd stayed up way past her bedtime.

Seated or standing in the comm room were the rest of the ground team for this merry little jaunt into the great unknown - her brother, Williams and Fredericks. Shepard stood in the centre of the room, exuding an aura of strength and calmness. Why wouldn't he be calm? He'd done this sort of thing hundreds of times before. Hero of the Blitz, 7-rating in the N-ops, able to leap tall buildings and put bad guys through walls with his bad-ass biotic jujitsu.

Beth couldn't help it, a small giggle escaped her lips. Belatedly she covered her mouth with her hardsuited hand.

"You have something to say, Shepard?" her brother's voice rapped out.

"Sir! I was just picturing you leaping tall buildings and gettin' jiggy with your biotic jujitsu, Sir!"

Seated across from her, Williams smiled, shaking with suppressed laughter.

Commander Shepard glared at his sister and Williams and placed his hands on his hips.

"Shepard! Drop and give me twenty!" he snapped.

_Is he shitting me?_ "Sir?"

"Marine! Are you deaf or just stupid? I said: _drop and give me twenty!"_

_Oh, I get it. He's gone mad with power. This is payback for all those times I pushed him around when we were kids._

Bethany rose from her seat, stepped to the centre of the room, gave her brother a truly venom-filled glare, dropped and gave him twenty. She rose, dusted her hands on her thigh armour and smiled sweetly at her younger sibling. "When we get off this ship, you are so dead."

Shepard grinned back, "Looking forward to it, sis."

His sister seated herself between Tali and Liara and Shepard began his briefing. "Alright. We all know why we're here-"

"Uh, sir, why _are_we here?" Fredrericks cut in.

"At this time, the mission is a recon in force of a possible illegal R & D facility. Expect rachni."  
A murmur ran through the crowd.  
Shepard went on, "We have reason to believe geth may also be present."

"Well, fuck a duck," Fredericks blurted out.

Bethany grinned nastily at him, "Yeah, you'd like that wouldn't you, you degenerate."

"That's enough!" Shepard barked as Fredericks half-rose from his seat. Reluctantly, the young marine settled back into his seat.

Joker's voice came over the comm system, "Commander, sensors are picking up a geth cruiser. It just dropped down from FTL. It's launching a dropship."

"Joker, can you trace the path of the dropship?"

"It's making a hard burn for the asteroid."

"Joker, bring the _Normandy_in under their scanners and drop the Mako onto the asteroid surface."

"Wait a minute," Bethany spoke up. "What are our chances of taking out the cruiser before they even know we're here?"

"Not good," Shepard answered, "We'd need to destroy the ship's eezo core on the first shot to ensure its destruction. Our guns just aren't powerful enough to breach a cruiser-sized craft's barriers _and_hull with one shot. And once we fire, our emissions will spike so high, the sinks won't be able to contain them. The geth will know right where we are and won't stop until we're so much space junk."

"Crud," was all Bethany said.

"Crew dismissed, get to the Mako."

Bethany paused on her way to the elevator and headed for the medbay. She wasn't leaving the ship until she was carrying as much medi-gel as humanly possible. And then a bit more for good measure. Standing before the medbay doors, Bethany breathed deeply a few times, trying to steel herself for the encounter with Kitty. She'd managed to avoid the amorous nurse ever since the breakfast in bed incident and now her only concern was grabbing the med supplies and getting out.

Deciding that if she steeled herself any more, she'd resemble a liquid-metal Terminator, Bethany hit the door panel and stepped into the medbay. She sighed aloud at the sight of the Kitty-less room. _Thank God for small mercies._

Bethany opened up the medi-gel dispenser, decanting the life-saving fluid into a number of injectors and secreting them in her thigh pockets. Just as she was finishing up, she heard the door hiss open behind her. _Oh no, here it is again_ a voice sang in her mind.

Bethany turned to see Kitty standing in the doorway, barring her exit. Oddly enough, Kitty wasn't smiling her usual teasing smile. She looked quite serious in fact.

"Bethany," Kitty said quietly.

"Kitty," Bethany replied. "Excuse me but I really have to go," she said and stepped forward. As she neared the younger woman, Kitty pressed the palm of her right hand against the breastplate of Bethany's hardsuit. Somewhat alarmingly, there didn't seem to be any sexual connotations to the movement; Kitty seemed to merely want Bethany to halt. Reluctantly she did.

"Before you go, I wanted to wish you luck," the nurse said sombrely. "I know we haven't exactly gotten off on the right foot and I know I come on a little strong at times."

"A _little strong?_ Sister, I've seen dogs in heat more restrained than you." Bethany immediately regretted her choice of words, seeing the pain in Kitty's eyes. "I'm sorry...I had no right to say that."

"No, you didn't. I know how you must think of me - the slutty little girl in the nurse's uniform. I just want somebody to hold onto!" Kitty's voice cracked and Bethany felt an intense wave of sympathy for her.

"Kitty, I wish I could give you what you need but I just don't feel anything like that towards you."

Kitty sniffled, wiped her wet eyes with a tissue and nodded. "I know. I knew I was fooling myself by thinking I had a chance with you at all." She shrugged, "It was kinda fun though, seeing you freak out the way you have."

"Well I'm glad one of us enjoyed ourselves," Bethany said dryly.

Kitty reached behind her neck and removed a fine golden necklace and crucifix that she'd worn beneath her uniform. "Please, take this for luck. Wear it close to your heart."

Bethany held out her hand and Kitty laid the chain into the cup of her palm, gently closing her fingers over it.

Bethany felt tears prick at her eyes as she fastened the chain around her neck. She loosened the collar of the hardsuit and dropped the crucifix inside the chestpiece before resetting it.

"Thank you, Kitty. I appreciate it. I also wanted to apologise for my behaviour towards you."

Kitty took Bethany's gloved hands, leaned forward and kissed her gently on the cheek. "Apology accepted, you gorgeous thing! Now get out there and kill some of those geth bastards for me."

Bethany smiled, "You're alright, Kitty. A little nuts but I like that in a person."

Being inside the crew compartment of the M35 felt the way the inside of a sardine can might feel. Bethany sat in the centre of the bench seat, shoulder to armoured shoulder with Liara on her right and Zorah on her left. Benched opposite her were Williams and Fredericks. Commander Shepard was in the driver's seat, again making his slow ponderous way through the pre-drop checklist. Beth blew out a breath and checked the timer displayed in her helmet's holographic HUD: five minutes they'd been sitting here, doing nothing.

Bethany rotated her head, hoping to relieve the tension in her neck and winced at the audible _crack_ emanating from her vertebrae. _You're getting too old for this, Bethie_a voice spoke up from somewhere in her hindbrain._ Shut the hell up! What would you know about it, anyway, you stupid cow!_ The mental voice of teenage-Beth snapped back. She hadn't heard from teen-Beth in a while and her presence now was strangely comforting.

Leaning forward slightly, Beth removed her assault rifle from the hardpoint on her back plate and deployed it, careful to keep the barrel pointing at the deck. Crossing her breastplate were a pair of banoliers containing high-explosive 30mm rounds for the grenade launcher as well as tactical rounds designed to disable kinetic barrier generators and overheat weapons. With quick motions, Beth opened the tubular magazine that fed the under-barrel launcher and slot three of the HE rounds into it. She pumped the slide, loading a round into the barrel, relishing the metallic _snick-snick_, a sound-effect that, in the vids usually heralded some poor bastard's head being blown apart.

Inserting a fourth round, she topped off the mag and closed it.

That done, she replaced the rifle on her back and settled in to wait. This was the part of being a marine that she'd always grappled with - the waiting and the mind-numbing tedium of performing her routine duties between drops. Of course, combat carried its own pitfalls. Pitfalls like say, taking a shot to the head not thirty seconds into an operation or the feelings of terror and uncertainty when an officer buys the farm, sowing confusion until his second takes over.

Bethany shifted uneasily on the bench, feeling her thigh brush against Liara's. The asari seemed not to notice, her eyes were unfocused as though she was looking not at the hull of the Mako but through it and her lips moved soundlessly. _I guess some things like saying your prayers cross species boundaries_ Bethany told herself. Bethany shifted position again, feeling herself tense up. She hadn't felt this jumpy before a drop since '73 and that particular mission hadn't gone swimmingly at all. In fact it had gone straight to hell five minutes after their boots had met dirt.

---

Bethany's Three Hours as Squad Leader, 25 March 2173

The mission had begun the same as any other - with a briefing delivered by a cigar-chomping hardass of a Captain who'd seen every film set during the Vietnam war era about fifty times each. A Captain who delighted in calling his soldiers 'maggots' and generally carrying on like a stereotypical drill sergeant.

Behind Captain William 'Iron Lung' Menzies' back, his soldiers called him Sgt Hartmann, after the drill sergeant in Full Metal Jacket. Iron Lung Menzies was a great deal scarier than Sgt Hartmann could ever have hoped to be, though. Menzies was powerfully built, standing six-five and with muscles on his muscles. When he smiled, which was rarely, his teeth gleamed whitely in his dark brown face. Right now, he was striding back and forth before the assembled company of Marines from the 99th under his command. Every soldier stood ram-rod straight and stared straight ahead. Standing in the middle of the front row of troops, PFC Shepard was a good deal closer to the Captain than she felt comfortable with. A trickle of sweat ran from her hairline and into her right eye, stinging. She didn't dare wipe the trickle away. The last time somebody had tried something stupid like twitching a facial muscle in Iron Lung's direction, they'd been ordered to, "Drop and give me five hundred, maggot!"

"All right, maggots! We have new orders from above. Intel have the location of a slaver outpost on this-here planet and _our_ job is to go in and terminate those slavers with extreme prejudice! Do you hear me?"

PFC Shepard raised her voice in a shout along with the rest of the company, "Sir yes sir!"

"What was that? My old granny could sound off louder'n that an' she's dead!"

Shepard inhaled a deep breath of the _Frisco's_ recycled air and screamed "Sir yes SIR!" She swallowed with a wince. _Oh goody, another sore throat._

Iron Lung ceased pacing the deck and simply stood, arms hanging loosely by his side and offered up a look of pained resignation to the ceiling, as though silently imploring God to deliver unto him a better batch of maggots for him to whip into shape. "I don't know what I did to deserve such a lowly bunch of maggots but here I am all the same. O Lordy, O Lordy"

After contemplating the gun-metal grey of the cruiser's ceiling for a few seconds, Iron Lung turned his gleaming bald head back towards his maggots, a look of not quite benevolence on his face. "Listen up, maggots! Squad assignments are as follows: Alpha! Your job is to secure the LZ and keep it clear of hostiles. Beta and Gamma! You're the muscle in this op! Sweep and clear the area of all hostiles. I'll upload co-ordinates of enemy structures to each squad leader."

Shepard grimaced, in part because of the hoarseness of her throat and in part because as part of Gamma, she now had the unenviable task of engaging the enemy in close-quarters, house to house fighting. PFC Shepard glanced sidelong at her squad leader, Corporal Kristy who'd just received the relevant mission files from Iron Lung. The Captain finished his briefing with the traditional "Ooh-rah?"

"Ooh-rah!" the troops shouted back with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Shepard grimaced again as she fell out and headed to the drop bay. It felt as though a tiny leprechaun with a heart of pure evil was striking matches against the walls of her throat and tap dancing along the irritated tissues of her throat with demonic spiky-heeled shoes.

Exactly five minutes after their boots hit planetside, a raised female voice shouted across the company's general freq, "The Cap'n's down! The Cap'n's down!"

Iron Lung down? Did the soldier mean 'down' as in 'he fell and twisted his ankle' or 'down' as in DRT?  
The LT's voice cut across the comm, "Sit rep!"

The first soldier's voice replied, shouting to be heard over gunfire, "We're pinned down at grid co-ordinates Echo Charlie Golf Eight Seven Niner! The Cap'n took a round right to the head! He ain't movin!"  
So 'down' as in Dead Right There. PFC Shepard swore as she approached the first target building.

The LT addressed the unit over the general freq, "This is Blake assuming command of Charlie Company. Alpha Squad, rendezvous with Beta and provide support! Gamma continue with original mission parameters. Blake, out."

"OK, Marines! Let's go, let's go!" Corporal Kristy yelled over Gamma's frequency. Shepard double-timed it to the door of the building, shotgun levelled at the entrance. She covered Private Connor as he decrypted the lock with his omni-tool. As the door slid upwards, revealing a darkened interior, Shepard caught movement and shouted a warning to Connor. Too late. A weapon spoke and Connor fell back, a bloody great crater where his head used to be. "Man down!" Shepard screamed. Shepard removed a grenade from her hardsuit, pressed the shiny red button of death and tossed it into the room.

A scream of "Grenade!" was followed by a satisfying _crump _and pained shrieks from within. Corporal Kristy stormed through the doorway, firing bursts from her rifle as she went. Shepard and the rest of the squad followed her. The squad had cleared three of the building's four rooms and was about to hit the last when a pistol shot breached Corporal Kristy's kinetic barriers and punched into her hardsuit, above the right breast. The Corporal folded almost gracefully to the floor, blood pulsing from the wound. _Shit! First Iron Lung then Connor now the Corporal!_

"Medic!" Shepard yelled and coughed painfully. Firing her own pistol one handed in the direction the shot had come, Shepard grabbed Corporal Kristy with her other hand and dragged her out of the line of fire.

Shepard cleared the last hostile with another grenade just as the medic arrived and began injecting medi-gel into the Corporal's wound. Eyes wide with shock, Corporal Kristy looked up at Shepard, a kind of resigned look in her face. Everybody knew Shepard wasn't a leader. Hell, she wasn't even a very good follower. "Guess you're in charge now," Corporal Kristy managed to say before passing out.

PFC Shepard couldn't recall much about the following three hours, just that they never seemed to end and that she'd managed to step back aboard the _Frisco_ with the same number of troops with which she'd started.

---

Now Liara's soft voice brought her back around to the present, "Bethany? Are you quite all right?"

Beth shook herself and turned her helmeted head to face Liara. Nestled within the helmet of her Titan hardsuit, Liara's face was creased with an expression of concern. "I'm fine. Just remembering old times." Raising her voice so she'd be heard by her brother, she continued, "And wishing to hell a certain Spectre would finish his pre-drop checklist and drop the Mako already!"

The certain Spectre made no reply. Not in words anyway. Instead he initiated the drop sequence and Bethany's stomach attempted to turn itself inside out by way of her esophagus as the rover fell into the vasty blackness outside the _Normandy_.

Bethany fought a brief internal battle with herself and only just managed to avoid up chucking into her helmet and drowning in her own puke.

"Everybody OK back there?" Shepard inquired, his voice all sweetness and light.

Gripping the bench in a white-knuckled grip, Bethany ground out, "I'll kill you, Augie. I'll kill you then bring you back to life so I can kill you again!"

"Love you too, Sis."

Thanks to Joker's carefully plotted flight path, the _Normandy_was able to pass beneath the notice of the geth cruiser, dropping the Mako just over two klicks from the research installation. As the rover grounded, the Commander began broadcasting across the standard Alliance comm frequencies, hailing the station. "This is Commander Shepard, SSV _Normandy_. If anybody can hear this, please respond ASAP."

There was only the sound of silence across the open commline.

"I guess we do this the hard way," Shepard commented as he put the M35 into gear.

As the Mako rumbled across the rocky terrain of the asteroid, Tali seated at the sensor display spoke up, "Detecting two element zero masses, bearing one five nine."

Shepard acknowledged, "Copy that, they look to be armatures. Williams, get on the main gun."

"Aye, sir," the marine replied and powered up the weapon's targeting and tracking systems. Outside the Mako, the 155mm turret rotated, the whine of the servomotors audible from inside the crew compartment. The gun aligned with the nearer of the two four-legged walkers. "Locked on," Williams reported.

"Fire at will."

The main gun fired, lobbing a high-explosive projectile at the armature. The blast staggered the walker, collapsing its barriers and damaging its bone-white armour. While the cannon cycled another round into the breech, Williams triggered a long burst from the mini-gun, the noise transmitted through the hull sounding like some hellish buzzsaw on steroids. The anti-armour rounds hammered the armature's frame, bits of pulverised armour spiralling away. A second HE round finished the job, sending the over-sized flashlight head cartwheeling across the ground.

By now, the second armature, feeling left out of the proceedings and more than a bit hacked off by the permanent deactivation of its fellow, swept its targeting reticle over the offending vehicle and was rewarded with a hard lock.

_Unit 15649798 reports target locked_

The mass accelerator mounted atop the geth glowed blue-white and pulsed out a shot at the Mako. At the controls, Shepard employed the kind of high-speed handbrake turn one might expect to see in _The Fast and The Furious Part 27_, slewing the vehicle around. The rear wheels bit into the ground, spewing out dust before the Mako lurched off ninety degrees from its previous direction of travel and avoiding death by mass accelerator. From the rear compartment a variety of muffled curses could be heard as the passengers were tossed around, chief among them Bethany's cry of "Son of a _bitch!"_

"Leave mother out of this," Shepard replied evenly. Back on the main gun, Williams repeated the one-two combo she'd previously used on the first armature and soon the second one went to join its fellow in that great big scrapyard in the sky. Geth Heaven where the pooches from Doggie Heaven would congregate and mark their territory all over the geth. By weeing on them. This image, of dogs peeing on wrecked geth struck the Gunnery Chief as enormously funny and she laughed briefly before sobering up.

"What's funny?" Beth enquired.

"Dogs peeing on geth," Williams replied with another spasm of laughter.

"And here's me thinking _I_ saw some strange things in my mind."

Without warning, the Mako came to a sharp halt. "What is it?" Bethany asked, instinctively reaching for her rifle.

Shepard's voice was queerly flat as he replied, "I see two bodies. Humans. Let's check it out." Shepard hit the quick release on his harness and opened up the Mako's hatches. Soon, the team was standing in a circle around the two bodies. Shepard knelt beside the male, activating his omni-tool. The omni-tool's snanner confirmed what he'd already suspected. "These two were killed by geth weaponry," he said, indicating the damage to the hardsuits.

Bethany crouched next to her brother, gently turning the body over and gasping at the extent of the damage, "Jesus wept..they must've been hit by an armature. Poor bastards never got off a shot, either," she said, indicating the safety switches on their assault rifles which in this case, had turned out to be not-so-safe switches.

Pointing at the lack of rank insignia and non-standard hardsuit configurations, Bethany hazarded a guess as to the origins of the soldiers, "These guys look to be mercs. Fairly well equipped compared to the ones I used to run into."

Standing again, she turned to face the outer buildings of the science installation, observing the way they were built into the surrounding rock. Likely much of the structures were below ground, she mused.

Straightening up, Shepard gestured to his team to fall in. "There's nothing more we can do here, let's continue to the facility."  
As she double-timed it back to the Mako, an unpleasant thought wormed its way into Bethany's mind, _I hope there's still somebody left in there to rescue._

* * *

A/N: The other night at about one in the morning, I had an epiphany about Nurse Kitty (the things that come to mind in the wee small hours are weird, huh?) Up 'til now, I've cast Kitty as this completely one-dimensional character who hits on everything wearing a skirt.

Then it occurred to me that beneath her 'come f*ck me' exterior is a young woman who just wants somebody to love. She just goes about things a little full on. Thus Kitty wishing Bethany luck and giving her the necklace. Anyway, I figure this fic has a few more chapters left to run so stay tuned. Or don't :P


	9. Chapter 9

Sorry this chapter took so long to come out but I've been a bit busy at work. Busy trying to avoid falling asleep from boredom in front of the computer, you know how it is.

9. Toaster Shopping

The entrance to the science facility was little more than a heavily armoured door painted a dull grey to blend in with the surrounding rock. Bethany was a little disappointed. _This _was the science station that had been keeping her up at night and waking her from what sleep she did get screaming? "Well, this is underwhelming," she commented as her brother activated his omni-tool.

Commander Shepard studied the encryption protocols of the door controls and whistled admiringly - now _this _was a lock! Shepard brought his left arm and omni-tool a little closer to his face, the amber light generated by the device illuminating him and pondered how best to crack the lock. Should he opt for a quick and dirty hack and unleash the CodeBreaker 4000 decryption algorithm or would he better off trying the-

"Any time you're ready, sir," Bethany muttered, sweeping her HUD with a practised gaze. Negative contacts.

Her brother turned to look at her over his shoulder. "These things take time, _Vixen_," he shot back.

"Uh huh. Tell me, if you were in danger of having your butt shot off, would you be taking this long?"

"Of course not - what are you _doing?"_ Shepard's voice rose on the last word as his sister detached the shotgun from her back and levelled it at his head.

"Beth, are you crazy?" Williams gasped, standing in front of her partner. Bethany grinned to herself, resting the weapon on her shoulder.

"Relax, I wasn't gonna shoot him and look, he got the door open!"

Indeed, the sight of the shotgun muzzle aligning itself with his right eye was just what the Spectre needed to make his choice - quick and dirty - and get the door open. Inside, the short gun-metal grey hallway was dimly lit by red emergency lights.

Vixen smiled to herself and said loudly, "Avon calling!"

"Emergency lights, that's never a good sign," Shepard said, bringing up his pistol and leading the way forward. Once the group was inside the, the door automatically sealed and re-pressurised the room. Upon detecting a breathable atmosphere, the shore party's hardsuit computers allowed the wearers to open their helmet visors, if they so chose.

The hallway led to another sealed door which Shepard duly omni-tooled open. Slumped on the floor in the next room was a dead body. Judging by the remains of the now-bloodstained white coat, he'd been a member of the science team. It was difficult to determine much else about the fellow, what with his head being gone and all.

The Commander knelt next the body and noticed something clutched in the right hand, a keycard. The man was likely attempting to escape out the main doors when he was cut down. Shepard gently prised the keycard from the body and slipped it into a thigh pocket. "Let's keep moving. Keep an eye out for survivors and check your fire." He was answered by a chorus of affirmatives.

---

The security office was a hive of concentrated barely controlled chaos. Upon the arrival of the geth, Barnes had immediately heightened the alert status to Code Magenta, which in his slightly askew universe was a great deal more serious than Code Red. In Barnes' view Code Red was bad, but Code _Magenta _was infinitely worse. Code Red was for when you were trapped in a slow moving elevator with a fellow who'd consumed copious quantities of baked beans for lunch. Code Magenta was for when the air ran out.

"Give me a status report!" Barnes barked at the room in general. Half a dozen people surged around him, thrusting datapads in his face. He snatched one at random. _Geth have penetrated outer defenses and infiltrated main level. Main generator shutdown and secondary power plant compromised, emergency power only. Oh jolly good! Containment failure in level 4 bio-hazard lab._

"Well, I guess we're all screwed. Ladies and gentlemen, it's been an honour and a privilege to have served with you-"

"Sir!" Connel said excitedly, "I'm getting a feed from a camera in the entrance hall. It's a unit of soldiers!"

"God DAMN IT! We're under attack! Again!" Barnes almost ran headlong into the intercom and snatched up the mouthpiece, "All units, all units, this is Barnes! Set alert status to...to...crap! What's the next level after Magenta?"

"Uh, sir?" Connel began, "There is no higher alert level and besides I think these are friendlies."

"You _think_ they're friendly?" Barnes snapped, "You want to walk out of here and go see for yourself, huh?"

Connel rolled her eyes, pushed herself away from her console and removed her headset, "Reckon I will, sir. If I'm going to die, I want to go out fighting, not cowering in here listening to you bang on about whether there should be a higher alert level than magenta."

"You are out of line, Connel! Get back to your station. That's it! You are on report, soldier!"

Ignoring him entirely, Connel snapped an ammunition block into her pistol, sealed her helmet around the locking collar of her hardsuit and headed out the door.

Meanwhile, as the security personnel were debating the merits of whether there should be an alert level higher than Code Magenta, Christabel was busy running for her life. The rachni had gotten loose and nobody knew why. The geth showed up, the power went off and then the damn things had swarmed all over everything like giant locusts. It was really aggravating, Christabel fumed as she ran, her lab coat swishing around her legs.

_If they had listened to me and gone with the double quadranium plating, this never would have happened but nooo! They had to get all fancy with stasis generators. If I get out of this, I'll be sure to leave a strongly worded vidmail with the stasis field manufacturers._

As she ran, feeling the lactic acid burn in her muscles and her heart threatening to burst forth from her chest and go skittering across the floor, Christabel heard the sounds of rachni crashing and banging through the ventilation shafts. A loud metallic screech sounded behind her and she turned, staggering to see a rachni soldier tear through a vent in the ceiling, dropping down behind her. It reared back and waved its forelegs at her, hissing and shrieking.

Gasping for breath, Christabel turned and began fleeing all over again.

---

Standing over the remains of the scientist with the keycard, Shepard turned to his team, "We should split into two units, we'll cover more ground. Williams, Fredericks, with me. Tali and Liara, you're with Beth. Our objective now is search and rescue if possible and the elimination of any geth or rachni we encounter."

"On it, sir," Bethany replied and gestured to her team to fall in. "Alright, stay close." Bethany _Vixen, you're Vixen now_ set off down a corridor branching off to the left while her brother's team headed right.

Vixen unfolded her assault rifle and, eyes unable to penetrate very far in the emergency-lighting gloom, switched on the flashlight mounted on her hardsuit's shoulder plate. Immediately revealed in a the cone of bright light was a familiar looking young woman dressed in a lab coat, running straight for them, eyes wide. "Oh thank God!," the woman gasped, panting heavily. Then her eyes narrowed, "Who are you? You're not part of the security force."

"Bethany Shepard, SSV _Normandy_. You know? The ship belonging to the first human Spectre?"

Christabel slumped against a wall, fighting to breathe more easily, "Oh man! Am I glad you guys are here! Where's Commander Shepard?"

"He's around. Listen, Christabel, we need to know how many rachni are loose and where."

Christabel looked suspiciously at the woman, "How'd you know my name?"

Vixen shook her head, "Long story, not enough time. How many of them-" Vixen ceased talking as she heard something big rumbling up the corridor towards them. "Alright, Christabel, get behind me! Shepard! We have contact with..something."

"Copy. Hold position."

Hurriedly, the young scientist moved to stand behind the soldier with the pink-decorated armour, taking note for the first time of her companions - an asari and a quarian? Wha? Vixen stood feet shoulder width apart and shouldered the rifle. The bug appeared at the far end of the corridor and reared back, squealing at her and presenting too good an opportunity to pass up. Lips peeling back from her teeth in a broad smile, Vixen switched off the safety on the grenade launcher and let fly with a 30mm round.

"Fire in the hole!" she shouted as she fired. The HE round struck the bug in its centre of mass and blew it into messy steaming chunks, spraying acidic muck all over the place. "Now _that's_ what I'm talkin' about!" Vixen shouted as the last echoes of the blast faded away. Turning to face Christabel, Vixen pumped the slide on the launcher, loading another round into the weapon. "You OK?"

The young woman nodded, eyes wide, "The blast left my ears ringing but otherwise I'm fine. Listen, there are more people holed up in the mess plus some guards in the security office."

Vixen nodded and placed a hand to the side of her helmet, keying her comm, "Shepard?"

"Go ahead."

"We've found a survivor. She says there are more in the mess hall and the security office."

"Great work, Beth. OK, head for the mess, we'll take the security office. And Beth?"

"Yeah?"

"Watch your back, OK?"

"Yeah, you too. Vixen, out."

Turning back to Christabel, Vixen detached her spare sidearm from the mounting point on her hip and offered her the weapon. "You know how to fire a gun?"

Christabel's gaze flicked from the weapon, to Bethany's face and back. She shook her head.

"Guess I'll hold onto this, then," Vixen said, reattaching the weapon. Muttering to herself she said, "There's never a crowbar around when you need one." Turning back to her squad, Vixen addressed Liara, "Liara, stay here with the doctor and cover our rear." The asari nodded and moved to stand beside Christabel, "Zorah, with me. OK, which way to the mess?"

Christabel nodded at the corridor she'd just run down, "Along there, follow the signs. Careful, there's geth besides the rachni...they've already killed about half a dozen people."

"How did you survive?" Liara enquired.

Christabel shook her head, shoulders slumping and sighed heavily. "I hid like a coward while the geth and the test subjects were killing each other." She sniffled and wiped her eyes with her coat sleeve.

"Hey," Vixen said, gently tilting Christabel's chin upwards so she could look at her face, "There was nothing you could have done, except be killed yourself."

"I know. I just feel so guilty."

"Before we go, what were you guys working on here?"

Christabel smiled a small, sad smile. "That's classified. But hell, what's any of that matter now?" She paused, gathering her thoughts. "You heard about the operation on Noveria to breed an army of rachni...for that rogue Spectre?"

"Yep," Vixen confirmed, checking her HUD. No contacts. She allowed herself to relax a little.

"Well, Dr Savrashi got it into his head that it was still possible to breed the rachni reliably and control them so he and a few others from Binary Helix set up a new operation here. The ultimate goal was to breed an army of rachni and basically sell them to the highest bidder." Christabel paused before going on, "We never got that far. The geth showed up and well," she waved her hands around, "You know the rest."

Tali spoke up then, "Do you know what the geth are looking for?"

Christabel shook her head vehemently, strands of hair swirling about her cheeks. "No clue. It's not like they announce what they're up to when they attack, you know?"

Vixen squared her shoulders and brought her rifle up again, "OK, let's move. Liara, sound off the moment anything happens over here, you hear me?"

"Loud and clear, Vixen," Liara said with a small smile. _Vixen indeed._

Vixen glanced at Tali, "Let's go toaster shopping." The two of them headed at a fast jog along the hall and were soon swallowed up by the gloom.

---

Connel crouched in the shadows a short distance from the security office. Oh sure, she'd _sounded _all full of piss and vinegar when she'd stormed out of there but now? Now the muscles in her thighs were trembling so badly, she could barely stand up. Geth. Rachni. Unknown subjects, hopefully not here looking to put a round through her forehead and screw her corpse. "Straighten up, Jodie," she told herself. Eventually, the shakes subsided and Jodie Connel continued down the hallway towards the entry doors where she'd spotted the newcomers on the camera feed.

As she moved in a low crouch to minimise her target profile, she heard unusual electronic-sounding beeps and boops and footsteps heading her way. "Ah hell," she whispered, easing off the safety catch on her pistol, wincing a little at how loud the _click _seemed. Rounding a corner at the end of the corridor, Connel eased her head around just enough to see a pair of humanoid individuals...with blue-glowing flashlighty heads. Geth. Quietly, Connel disappeared back around the corner. They'd on her any moment now. If she was lucky, she'd be able to drop one before they could react. Otherwise...Jodie Connel had never been a particularly religious person but now she made the sign of the cross and mouthed the words of the Twenty-Third Psalm, psyching herself up.

_And though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil..._Connel rolled around the corner, came up firing. Her first three shots took the right-most geth high in the chest, the kinetic barriers flashing blue and white in the dimness. The geth voiced a surprised-sounding electronic squawk, bringing its pulse rifle to bear. The second geth also raised a weapon. Cursing, Connel's right index finger continued squeezing down on the Kessler's trigger _blam blam blam_. The geth she targeted reeled back, a series of holes blown through its carapace and it fell in front of its buddy, tangling up its legs. The second geth gave a second surprised sounding squawk and fell on its 'face.'

Connel got to her feet, and backed up as she fired at the prone geth. The pistol merely bleeped at her in protest. The cheap piece of crap had overheated. So it was something of a surprise when the back of the geth's head exploded, spraying her with high-velocity shards of metal and cold blue goop. Connel winced as a piece of metal sliced across her cheek.

Connel sighted down her pistol at the three people coming towards her, either her saviours or here to make life worse for her. "Stay back! Nobody move!" she shouted. The three armoured figures, a woman and two men halted. The man in the centre lowered his gun, gesturing for the others to comply. "Who the hell are you?" Connel snapped, keeping her gun trained on them. Though, realistically, three against one odds meant that the gesture was mere posturing. She postured anyway.

The man in the centre of the trio, the leader apparently, spoke. "Commander Shepard, SSV _Normandy_."

"Oh holy Christ! I _told _Barnes you guys were friendlies!" Connel said excitedly and lowered the pistol. "Uh, not to sound ungrateful but how'd you find us? The facility's supposed to be off the grid, totally dark."

The female soldier replied, "A little bird told us. Look, it doesn't matter. We're here. You've got geth and rachni loose and we have a ship in orbit for an evac."

Connel shook her head, "Nuh-uh. Nobody goes nowhere until the last of the bugs are contained or put down. If even one of those things makes it off-station..." she trailed off.

Shepard nodded. "We know, we've seen the way they can board transports and express-mail themselves to outlying colonies. We could use your help. What's your name, soldier?"

"Jodie Connel. The poindexters hired us to provide security. I can take you to the security office so you can be briefed by Barnes. He's the security chief."

The woman soldier muttered, "He's done a bang-up job so far."

Shepard frowned at the woman, "Williams," was all he said and the woman subsided. Turning back to Connel, he asked, "Do you have any idea of how many geth we're facing?"

"No idea, sir. The rachni, I can give you numbers on those."

"Good, how many?"

"About five hundred."

"Ah crap," Williams muttered. Then she and the others fell in with Connel and resumed walking.

---

The entrance to the mess had been heavily reinforced with benches, tables and equipment lockers stacked against the door to slow down any attempts to enter by either geth or rachni. The half-dozen geth currently tearing aside the obstacles in their path weren't having any of that though. Vixen saw that, unless she and Zorah intervened, the mechanicals would be through into the mess hall in a matter of minutes and then it'd be a bloodbath for the civilians holed up on the other side of the doors.

Vixen examined the geth through the scope of her rifle. Five of the now-familiar white-armoured shocktroopers plus a much larger geth of a type she hadn't yet seen. "Zorah," she whispered just loud enough to be heard, "What _is_ that thing?"

"A Destroyer. Designed for close quarters combat. It's very fast on its feet and will charge right in at you if it sees you."

"Joy," Vixen said dryly. "Can you hack its brain?"

"Of course," Tali answered as she used her omni-tool to broadcast an override code directly to the destroyer's main processing unit. The big geth jerked upright from where it was in the midst of pulling aside a bench, emitted warbling electronic noises and immediately began ripping its companions limb from limb. The shocktroopers attempted to return fire but in such close quarters, their rifles weren't effective at repelling the threat.

"Oooh, that's nasty," Vixen commented, wincing as she watched the destroyer...destroying the other five geth. Within moments, the area around the door was littered with smashed and mangled shocktrooper parts. The surrounding walls, floor and ceiling were splashed with what passed for blood in the geth. Blue rivulets trickled down the destroyer's chest and legs. Its current orders carried out, the destroyer merely stood, waiting for new imput.

"The hack will wear off soon," Tali warned. Vixen nodded as she deployed her sniper rifle. Much as she would have loved to take the geth out with a grenade, she couldn't risk injuring any survivors on the other side of the door. Seen through the scope, Vixen saw the way the destroyer's blue-glowing optical interface was supported by thick segmented cabling that disappeared inside its torso.

Settling the stock of the rifle more comfortably against her right shoulder, Vixen steadied herself and stroked the trigger. The rifle _cracked_, sending a tungsten round directly into the blue glowing orb that was the destroyer's face. The head jerked back and the glow flickered and died. The destroyer crashed to the ground amid the wreckage of its brethren.

Without waiting to be told, Tali activated her omni-tool and decrypted the door lock. The door slid open with a mechanical sigh; Tali and Vixen picked their way carefully through the synthetic remains and discarded furniture into the mess hall.

Cowering behind an overturned table were several men and women in lab coats. Replacing the rifle on her rear armour plate, Vixen held her hands palm outward and said, "Relax, we caught wind of the situation here and we came to help."

"Impossible!" a middle aged man retorted. Vixen smiled to herself. "Dr Savrashi, I presume?"

"I...how do you know who I am? Who_ are_ you people?"

"We're kinda-sorta with the Alliance military. More specifically, the_ Normandy_. You may have heard of it."

"_Normandy?_" another man breathed, "Thank God!"

Vixen turned her head towards Tali, "You guys get that reaction a lot?"

Tali shrugged, her helmeted head slowly panning back and forth as she inspected the area, "I suppose a little thing like stopping the geth and Saren may leave an impression on people."

"Alright, Doctor. We need a sitrep," Vixen said, settling herself against a counter.

"Sit...rep?" Savrashi asked hesitantly. He wiped his damp brow with a folded white handkerchief.

"Yeah like, how did the bugs get loose and how do we contain them? That kind of thing."

"There was a power failure when the geth attacked and we lost containment. The subjects subsequently breached the perimiter of the secure bio-hazard lab. We barely made it out alive," he explained, indicating the other personnel with him.

"As for containing the subjects, I am afraid that is quite impossible."

"Look, Doc. We are _not_ going on a freaking bug-hunt, cleaning up after your mistakes," Vixen almost snarled. The scientists shifted back and forth uneasily, murmuring to each to other. Tali thought she heard one say to another, _This bitch is gonna kill us all._

"There is one other option," Savrashi conceded, again wiping his lined forehead. "We can initiate a self-destruct sequence and the resulting detonation will purge this entire asteroid of all life."

Vixen chucked mirthlessly, "What is with you lab-geeks and self-destruct sequences?"

"It is the only way to ensure that no rachni escape the facility. I'm sure you don't need to be told what those creatures are capable of."

"Yeah, which would be exactly why you idiots were breeding them to begin with. Great work."

Savrashi said nothing, he merely looked down at the floor.

Vixen keyed her comm, tapping into the command frequency, "Shepard? Vixen."

"Go ahead, Vixen," came her brother's reply. The transmission was so clean and clear he might have been standing right beside her. "We've made contact with the surviving science team. The head honcho tells me they can self-destruct the facility and wipe out the bugs."

"Beth? Hold position. We're at the security station and have rendezvoused with the security force. We'll link up with your group before we deal with anything else."

"Roger, holding position. Vixen, out."

Switching to her own squad's frequency, Bethany commed Liara. "T'soni?"

"I'm here, Bethany," Liara's soft voice replied. "What do you need?"

"I'm going to need you and Chrissie to head over to the mess hall. We've hooked up with some survivors and are preparing to bug out, over."

"Understood. We'll be there shortly."

"And Liara?"

"Yes, Bethany?"

"Watch your back, there may be more geth in the area."

"We'll be careful."

Bethany closed the link and returned her attention to the civvies. "Cavalry's coming in then we're outta here...hello!" she said and walked further into the room, past the curious members of the science team. Resting on a counter towards the back of the room was a white-enameled kitchen appliance plugged into a wall socket.

A toaster. Bethany stood before it, examining it and found, by some miracle of fate, that it was the same type she'd taken apart and effectively killed as a ten year old. "Wow," she marvelled. "Six slices at once and the slots are wide enough to toast English muffins!"

"Excuse me but what are you doing?" Savrashi said in apparent protest as Bethany unplugged the toaster and began wrapping the cord around the body of the appliance. "You can't take our toaster!"

Bethany paused, turned to face the scientist and said, "Buddy, I don't make a habit of saving people from their own stupidity for free and besides, once this place goes up, your toaster's so much vapour. I'm doing it a favour."

"It's _our _toaster!" Savrashi insisted. "It's the principle of the thing!"

Bethany rolled her eyes, "Fine, fine. How about I buy it off you? How much d'you want for it?"

"Well, it cost 45 credits new, so..."

Placing the toaster back on the bench, Bethany opened a pouch on her armour and removed a credit chip, "Here's a fifty. Keep the change," she said, tossing the credit to Savrashi who deftly caught it.

Liara and the young human woman moved at a fast walk up the corridor towards the mess. Liara was aglow with biotic power, keeping her nervous system primed should she need to put something through a wall. So far they had encountered no resistance for which Liara was grateful. She had come a long way since being rescued from the geth by Commander Shepard in what felt like another lifetime and had since learned much about handling weapons but she still felt uneasy about being in hostile territory without backup. Liara glanced at her HUD; the blue dots representing Bethany and Tali were only a few hundred metres away and the path ahead was clear -

A deep booming sound rang out from somewhere overhead and behind Liara, Christabel gasped in fear. A thin metal grate suddenly blasted downward from the ceiling ducts, a single rachni soldier falling after it. Liara winced as Christabel screamed a piercing scream, fingers digging into her face and leaving red welts behind. _"Oh God! We're all doomed! I should have become a vet nurse like my mother wanted me to!"_

"Oh by the Goddess," Liara muttered. _Did I seem as terrified and helpless as that when Commander Shepard rescued me. I must admit that I did. _Liara gestured with her left arm and felt a cocoon of dark energy swirl around her, forming a barrier between herself and anything that might seek to shoot her or rip her head off and relocate it to her nether regions. The rachni scuttled towards, them and Christabel screamed again. Liara was usually a patient asari and slow to anger. But that woman's ear-piercing high decibel shrieks were rapidly eroding Liara's patience and she snapped, "By the Goddess, stop screaming like a girl!"

Without waiting for a reply, Liara shoved the rachni back the way it came with a biotic throw, following up with a warp field. The bug writhed in agony, squealing as the mass effect field rended its carapace. Gripping her pistol in both hands, Liara finished it with a volley of rounds to the head. Finally the rachni lay dead.

Christabel was still screaming. Liara replaced her sidearm, allowed the barrier to fade and turned to face the ashen-hued woman. "Christabel? Please, it is OK now. We are safe." Christabel kept screaming, a high-pitched cry that rang off the metal walls, floor and ceiling and seemed to become magnified before assaulting Liara's ears all over again. Liara realised that the woman was hysterical. "Am I going to have to slap you?" Liara asked, raising her right hand and holding it up before her companion. Finally Christabel's screams stopped. Her chest hitched up and and down and she began to shake violently. Liara's eyes narrowed. She began to consider putting the hysterical young woman into stasis and dragging her the rest of the way.

---

Connel led the three Alliance personnel back to the security office, feeling some measure of pride and satisfaction - hadn't she told Barnes they were friendlies? As she walked along the hall, Connel flicked a glance at her HUD but everything was clear and she was beginning to get antsy. Where were all the geth? Oh hell, now she was starting to think like Barnes. _Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, Jodie _she told herself. The little group of soldiers was only a about fifty metres away from the relative safety of the security office when Connel's HUD appeared to go on the fritz, static flickering across her sensor display. She stopped, instinctively holding up a closed fist. Behind Connel, the other soldiers ceased walking and brought their weapons up.

"My HUD's scrambled," Connel murmured.

"There's a geth in the area, jamming our sensors," the Spectre replied.

Connel muttered a curse and glanced over her shoulder at the Spectre, "I don't suppose you want to go take a look?"

Shepard nodded once. "Williams, with me. Fredericks, Connel, hold here."

The Commander was duly answered by a medley of _Roger, Aye, aye, and Sir, yes Sir!_

Moving ahead at a low crouch, Shepard and Williams crept up the corridor, the former aglow with biotic power, ready to unleash a gravity-distorting singularity at a moment's notice, the latter firmly telling herself to just stop eyeing her CO's butt as she covered his advance.

Shepard halted in the shadows between two ceiling-mounted emergency lamps; his helmet's audio pickups transmitting distinctive sounds of a geth hopper springing back and forth. Shepard could almost see the hopper's synthetic leg muscles flexing as it made each leap. The hopper's ability to leap so quickly from one vantage point to another while generating the barrage of HUD scrambling ECM emissions made it difficult to lock onto it. Working in concert with other geth units, a single hopper could suppress the targeting and tracking systems of entire squads, while geth troopers executed flanking maneuvers.

_Not this time_, the Spectre told himself. "Ash, I'll draw it out and get its attention -"

"No, let me go," Williams protested.

Shepard turned to face his partner and, just for an instant, the Commander Shepard persona fell away, "Darling, if anything happened to you because you were trying to protect me, I'd never forgive myself," he said, voice a mere whisper. Before Ash could reply, Shepard gently slid up the visor of her helmet and laid a tender kiss on her lips. "I'll be right back," he said and left before she could answer.

As Williams watched her lover disappear into the shadows, she still felt the all-too-brief touch of his lips upon hers. "I hate it when he does that," she muttered, gripping her shotgun.

As Shepard had expected, the hopper was clinging to the ceiling and readying itself for another leap when he found it. Left arm extended, Shepard flexed and relaxed his arm muscles in a specific pattern, firing off the eezo nodes throughout his nervous system. The result was a physics-defying singularity, trapping the hapless geth and causing it to rotate in midair. A volley of tungsten rounds from the Spectre's pistol punched through the geth's amour, globules of blue coolant floating alongside the now-defunct hopper. The singularity shrank and disappeared; geth and coolant crashed and splashed to the ground. At the same time, the team's HUDs cleared.

Rejoining the rest of the squad, Shepard gestured for Connel to take point, hoping that the security chief would be less likely to shoot blindly at them with a known quantity in the lead. After everything he'd seen, he shouldn't have been surprised when things didn't quite pan out that way.

Barnes paced back and forth in the cramped office, gaze flicking from one monitor to the next. It had been over ten minutes since Connel had stormed out with no sitrep from her. Then only minutes ago, shooting from a short distance away. To Barnes' trained ears, the gunfire sounded like it had originated from a high-quality sidearm. So it very definitely hadn't been Connel's.

As his pacing carried Barnes away from it, the security office door slid open. Immediately Barnes spun around so fast he almost fell over his own feet and raised his sidearm. Dead in his sights was Connel, behind her were three unknown subjects. "Hands in the air!" he shouted. Behind him, the staff at their terminals immediately shot their arms skyward before realising Barnes hadn't been addressing them.

Connel slowly raised her hands above her head. This was so typical of Barnes, she fumed. "Uh sir, you wanna quit aiming the gun at my head?" she asked. Glaring at her over the sight of his weapon, Barnes demanded to know, "Who the hell are _these_ guys?"

The tall broad shouldered fellow standing behind her replied, "Commander Shepard, SSV _Normandy_."

Barnes blinked a few times and slowly lowered the gun until it was held loosely by his side. "Shepard, huh?"

"They caught wind of the snafu here and came to help," Connel said, slowly lowering her hands.

"How? Which one of you blabbermouths spilled their guts?" Barnes snarled over his shoulder at his staff. They said nothing.

"Look, we don't have time to figure out who spilled their guts to whom and why, alright?" Connel put in. "We need to link up with the surviving scientists, pull the self-destruct and get the hell off this rock...sir."

Barnes seemed to mull this over then came to a decision, "How big of a ship do you have, Shepard?"

"We'll be able to evac everybody but it'll be a tight fit," the Spectre answered.

"Sardines jammed into a tin tight?" Barnes pressed for details.

Connel rolled her eyes, "Jesus, does it matter?"

"Don't take that tone with me, young lady," Barnes said and waggled a finger at her.

Williams spoke up then, "With respect, I'd feel a lot safer if we could continue this scintillating conversation somewhere other than here."

"Williams is right," Shepard began. Raising his voice, he addressed the room at large, "Everybody, secure your gear and fall in, we're leaving."

As the security staff began preparing to leave, Shepard's sister radioed him over their private channel, "Shepard? Vixen."

"Go ahead, Vixen," he replied.

Shepard listened as his sister gave him a sitrep, "We've made contact with the surviving science team. The head honcho tells me they can self-destruct the facility and wipe out the bugs."

"Beth? Hold position. We're at the security station and have rendezvoused with the security force. We'll link up with your group before we deal with anything else."

"Roger, holding position. Vixen, out."

Shepard surveyed the dozen-strong group of men and women from the security office and nodded to himself. Between himself and Vixen, they'd be able to save quite a few lives.

---

As she waited for her brother and his party to arrive - and they were taking their sweet time about it - Vixen performed a quick inventory of their situation. Herself, Zorah and T'soni were uninjured and by some small miracle, the poindexters were similarly unhurt.

Unless it was actually possible to die of fright, in which case, young Christabel, who had just arrived with Liara was a dead girl walking. The young woman's face was strained and pale, her dark hair clinging damply to her forehead. As she and Liara had entered the mess, Christabel's eyes widened at the sight of the other surviving scientists and she'd ran sobbing into Dr Savrashi's arms. The elder man held her awkwardly and patted her back as she got tears and snot all over his nice white lab coat. He sighed to himself, he'd need that dry-cleaned now.

"I don't suppose any of you guys knows how to handle a gun?" Bethany asked when Christabel had calmed somewhat. The scientists looked to each other and finally, a man of about thirty stood up at the rear of the room, over by the food dispensers and said, "I used to go duck hunting with my father when I was younger. I can handle a shotgun."

"Good," Bethany nodded as she detached the shotgun from the small of her back. "I'm gonna want that back, so don't die on me, 'kay?"  
The scientist nodded, and brushed the overlong brown hair from his eyes before taking the shotgun. Bethany watched the way he handled the weapon and nodded, satisfied.

She eyed each of the remaining science team in turn, "Anybody else?" When there were no other takers, she took the time to sit at a bench and relax a little.

Resting inside a bowl painted in bright primary colours were several shiny red apples. Bethany briefly wondered how much it must cost, having fresh fruit delivered all the way out here then dismissed the thought as her stomach growled. Bethany unsheathed the talon on her left forearm and plucked out a nice juicy apple. Leisurely, she sliced off a piece of the fruit and popped it into her mouth, relishing the way it crunched between her teeth and the sweet flavour of the juice on her tongue. A second piece soon followed and, just as she was about to help herself to a third piece, the mess hall's doors opened. Instantly, the half-eaten apple was forgotten as Bethany snapped back into readiness, sweeping the assault rifle to her shoulder.

An instant later, she relaxed. "Oh it's just you," she said, as her brother led his group into the room.

Shepard's gaze travelled throughout the room before coming to rest on his sister. "You did good, Beth."

"So what now?" Williams asked.

Shepard strode forward until he was standing in the centre of the room. "I need to speak to the man in charge," he announced.

"I'm the lead scientist," Dr Savrashi said and stepped forward to meet the Spectre. Christabel clung to his left arm like a small child to her father. "And you would be?"

"Commander Shepard, office of Special Tactics and Reconnaissance." All around Shepard, the science team murmured to each other in low voices.

Savrashi's eyebrows rose slightly but that was the extent of his reaction. "What are you doing here?" he asked voice firming.

"Saving you from yourselves, apparently," Shepard answered, "I understand you can initiate a self-destruct program and wipe out the rachni?"

Savrashi blinked, "I can."

"Then do it."

"Commander, with respect, this facility represents many months of work! We can't just-" he broke off as Vixen stepped up beside him, hand on her sidearm.

"You can and you will."

"Beth..." Shepard began.

"No, Augie! I'm through pussy-footing around with these idiot savants. We're risking our lives trying to save theirs, the least they could do would be to co-operate!"

Christabel sniffled, wiped her eyes on her coat sleeve. "They're right, Doctor. We can't salvage the situation now. We have to..." she choked back a sob, "We have to deep-six the project."

Savrashi sighed to himself. "Can we at least secure our research notes first?"

Vixen snorted, "Why? So you can start over somewhere else? Nuh-uh."

"Young lady," Savrashi began, voice rising, "I don't think you realise the sheer amount of credits that our backers have invested in this project-"

Channelling Ellen Ripley, Vixen thrust her head forward until she was nose to nose with the scientist and announced in a flat voice, "They can bill me!"

Defeated, Savrashi's shoulders slumped and he sighed to himself, "Very well. I need to get to my office and activate the destruct sequence."

Vixen smiled, "Lead the way. I'd hate for you to get lost or something. Augie?"

"Beth?"

"The good doctor and I will kick things off. Be a good boy and arrange our ride will you?"

Shepard folded his arms and frowned at his sister, brow furrowing, "Last time I checked, _I_ was still in command of this mission."

"Uh-huh, and last time _I _checked, I was still five years older than you and Big Sister outranks Little Brother!"

Shaking his head, Shepard opened a comm-line to the _Normandy_, "Joker?"

"Go ahead, Commander."

"We're getting ready to head out. Ground the _Normandy_ and wait for further orders."

"Copy, _Normandy_ out."

"Beth, go with the doctor. The rest of you," Shepard raised his voice to include everybody, "With me. Let's move, people."

Before she left the mess, Vixen handed off her toaster to Williams, "See that it gets aboard the ship, Williams."

---

"Are you sure there's no way I can persuade you to let me leave with my data?" Savrashi said as he and Vixen headed at a fast walk towards his private office.

"What part of 'no' do you not understand, _Doctor?_" Vixen replied, keeping a watch on her scanner displays.

"How about if I offered you money?" Savrashi stopped and turned to face the soldier.

"How about you shut the fuck up now?" she snapped. Wordlessly Savrashi turned away and kept walking. Unseen by the crude woman, a smile played over his face.

The motley collection of Alliance personnel, scientists, mercenaries and non-humans made good time back to the entryway. "How are you planning to get everybody onto your ship?" Barnes asked.

Shepard inspected the airlock that they'd first arrived through. "We'll extend an umbilical from the _Normandy_ to this airlock and board without having to use pressure suits."

Barnes nodded, "OK, listen up," he called out to his security team. "I want this location locked down! Nobody gets in or out without my say-so, understood?"

"Yessir!" they replied and took up defensive positions.

Savrashi pulled out the chair and sat at his desk. As his terminal booted up, he half-turned to face his escort. "You seem like an intelligent woman beneath that crude exterior. I'm offering you the chance to walk away right now and you stand to make a substantial amount of money." As he spoke, Savrashi's left hand slowly and carefully eased down to the middle of three desk drawers. If he couldn't persuade the woman to see things his way, he was prepared to use more drastic means.

Vixen leaned against the wall beside the doorway and shook her head. "You're persistent. But the answer is still no."

"That's too bad," Savrashi murmured as he eased open the drawer. The woman pointed a hand at the terminal, "You're ready to go," she said.

Nodding, the scientist turned back to the terminal and flexed his fingers. Leaning against the wall, Vixen observed as Savrashi began typing commands into his holographic keyboard. As he worked, she allowed her gaze to roam around the cramped, spartan room. Besides the desk, chair and small cot, there was little else in the room. A framed photograph of Savrashi and an attractive middle-aged woman, probably his wife was the only personal item in the room.

As he entered his administration over-ride codes into the system and accessed the emergency protocols, Savrashi became aware that the woman's attention on him was waning. He smiled to himself as he reached into the desk drawer. One handed he continued to enter commands as his fingers closed around the grip of the sidearm. The console bleeped and he reported, "The self-destruct system is initialised. Before I finish arming the sequence, I feel I must make one last entreaty towards you," as he spoke, diverting the woman's attention, the scientist found the safety switch on the pistol and snapped it off.

"I'm in a position to offer you an extraordinary amount of money. You could retire, become a woman of leisure."

"If you don't hurry the hell up, I'll become a woman of smacking your head into the wall," she replied.

Savrashi sighed and firmed his grip on the weapon. He had only one chance and even so, wasn't likely to succeed against a heavily armoured opponent. Spinning his chair around, Savrashi yanked the weapon out of the drawer, aimed and fired.

"Ah, for fuck's sake!" Vixen had time to swear as the civilian came around with a pistol _Where did that come from? _and began firing. The first shot was harmlessly absorbed by her kinetic barriers but caused her to flinch backwards. As she recoiled, feeling her balance shift, Savrashi rose from his seat and advanced on her, still firing. The volley of shots soon collapsed her barriers and, as she fell, Vixen felt a round penetrate the join between two ablative plates covering her stomach.

Savrashi stood over the limp body of the woman breathing heavily, holding the pistol in shaking hands. "Weren't expecting_ that_ were you?" he snarled and kicked the woman as hard as he could. The tip of his shoe caught her in the ribs and she grunted in pain.

"Now to get what I came for and leave you all to your fate," Savrashi muttered and returned to his desk. As she lay on the floor, feeling the blood leaking out of her, Vixen's eyes rolled around to observe the doctor inserting an OSD into his console. Levering herself painfully to her knees, Vixen dropped her right hand to her sidearm, pressing the left into her stomach. Drawing down on the man who'd shot her, she ground out, "Get down on your knees and put your hands behind your head."

Savrashi turned slowly to see the soldier stagger upright, holding a hand to her side. The barrel of her gun never wavered. Savrashi briefly considered his options: let himself be taken in by this woman and probably spend the rest of his life in some Council-run jail or try to take his chances and run.

Savrashi snapped up his gun and fired again. Vixen saw his arm tense and squeezed off a shot of her own. The pair of shots seemed painfully loud in the small office. Savrashi's bullet took Vixen in the helmet, the impact snapping her head backward. Vixen's bullet blew through the doctor's right shoulder, splashing blood across the wall behind him and spinning him halfway around.

Supporting himself against his desk with his good arm, Savrashi ejected the OSD and punched the final command into the console: **Execute**

"Attention all personnel: self-destruct sequence initiated. Core detonation in one-five minutes. Please have a safe and productive day," the VI announced. Over the ringing in her ears caused by the impact of the bullet to her helmet, Vixen barely heard it. Savrashi staggered away from the desk and ran in a shambling fashion out the door. Behind him, Vixen rose to her feet and hobbled after him, a faint smile on her face. _Here's a fun image: one half-dead woman chasing a half-dead man._

---

"OK, people, you heard the VI!" Shepard shouted. "Joker! Bring the _Normandy_ down alongside the station's airlock and extend a docking umbilical. I want us all buttoned up and gone in ten minutes, Mister!"

"Aye, aye, sir. Secure and aweigh. ETA thirty seconds."

Switching comm channels, Shepard attempted to contact his sister, "Vixen, where are you?"

The pained response tore at his heart, "Savrashi decided to grow a pair of cojones and made off with his research files. That was_ after_ he shot me. I'm in pursuit."

"Negative! Listen to me, Beth! Forget him, get your ass back here, you hear me?"

"Just hold down the fort a little longer, little brother, I'm almost on him."

"Bethany? Beth?" but by now Shepard was talking to dead air.

---

Savrashi ran painfully down the corridor towards the vehicle garage where a small short-range shuttle was docked. Hopefully he could reach it before the place went up. As he ran, a dull ache spread out from his arm and through his body. So this was what being shot felt like? He regretted that he didn't have the time to give the sensations a proper analysis.

Vixen ran painfully down the corridor after the doctor, teeth gritted as waves of pain rolled sickeningly through her. She could feel the blood trickling from the wound and wondered how much time she had. _This is so typical. I got through three years in the marines with nothing worse than menstrual cramps and now that I'm 'retired' I'm shot and bleeding out!_

Ahead of her Savrashi stumbled and threw out an arm to steady himself against the wall. Before he could set his feet beneath him, Vixen unsheathed a talon and hurled it at him. The blade flashed end over end before burying itself in the meat of his left thigh. He fell screaming, hands gripping his leg.

_Self destruct sequence initiated. Core detonation in one-zero minutes_

Savrashi writhed about on the floor, blood from his wounds smearing the floor. "You slut!" he roared as his tormentor loomed above him, breathing heavily. "You stabbed me!"

"Yeah? Well you shot me. So cry me a fuckin' river." Placing a hand to her helmet, Vixen got her brother on the comm, "Shepard?"

"Bethany, thank God!"

"The package is secured. I'm gonna need an assist getting back to the ship though." _God, asking my little brother for help, I'll never live that one down._

"Roger, hold position. And Beth, if you ever try something like that ever again, so help me, I'll.."  
Vixen chuckled as she unsnapped the thigh pocket on her amour and removed a medi-gel injector. "You can go apeshit at me after we're all off this rock. Vixen out."

Keeping well out of reach of the doctor, Bethany unfastened the damaged portion of armour over her abdomen and tossed it aside. The wound itself was little more than a small neat hole, an inch an a half to the left of her navel. Even as she watched, another bit of blood pulsed out and trickled down her side. Bracing herself for the cold sting, Bethany pressed the injector into the wound and shot the contents of the vial into her side. "Ah, _fuck me!_ That's cold!" The iciness faded after a few seconds, taking the pain with it. Where the pain was, a kind of warm numbness grew in its place.

Wearily, Bethany crossed to where Savrashi was slumped to the floor. He tried to scramble backwards as she approached but collapsed with a pained moan. Kneeling beside him, Bethany wrapped a hand around the hilt of the talon, saying "This is going to hurt you a lot more than it does me." Smiling sweetly, she yanked the blade out. Savrashi's eyes all but popped from his face and he screamed once, loudly before passing out.

Now all that was left to do was to sit and wait for the cavalry to arrive.


	10. Chapter 10

10. Get Out of Dere!

As she waited for her brother to arrive, Vixen sat with her back to the wall and her long legs splayed out in front of her. Her body ached like hell. The pain from the bullet wound in her side had been dialed back, courtesy of the medi-gel, to a dull roar but she could actually feel the small slug nestled inside her and belatedly realised she'd need to go under the knife once they got back to the ship. "Oh joy," she muttered, "Unconscious and at the mercy of a sex-crazed nurse." Vixen turned to glare at the motionless form of the doctor lying several feet away, "You'll get yours, buddy."

Tiredly, Vixen reached up to the locking collar at her throat and unsealed her hardsuit's helmet connections. The seal broke with a sharp _his_s and Bethany held the helmet before her, blinking in amazement at the damage it had absorbed, courtesy of Savrashi's pistol shot.

Had she not been wearing the helmet, the slug from the good doctor's sidearm would have drilled her right between the eyes. A dimple in the helmet's ablative plating, just above the visor, showed where it had hit. "Jesus," Beth muttered, tracing a gloved fingertip around the hole. She looked back at the troublesome scientist, "Not a bad shot for a civilian," she allowed. Laying the helmet aside, Bethany pressed her hand to the earpiece of her communications transceiver, "Shepard? Where the hell are you? We don't have a lot of time here."

As if in agreement, the facility AI chimed in with "Self destruct sequence initiated. Core detonation in five minutes." A pause then the VI added, "Remember: a safe workplace is a happy workplace."

Shepard's voice came back, carrying barely controlled panic, "Just hold on a little longer, we're almost there." As the voice spoke into her ear, she heard booted feet moving at a run towards her.

Bethany smiled, rested her head on the wall. By the sounds of it, her brother was attempting to achieve a new land-speed record. "Atta boy," she whispered.

Shepard's heartbeat thundered in his ears as he ran flat out towards the blue blip on his HUD that was his sister. As he ran, he was faintly aware of Williams and Fredericks hard on his heels. Tali, Liara and the security team were overseeing the evac of the science team.

Although he tried mightily not to do it, the Spectre cast a glance at Beth's vitals. They looked healthy enough though her heartrate was up and her BP was down.

In his haste to rescue his sister, Shepard lost his balance as he flew around a blind corner - and right into the arms of an approaching geth trooper. Shepard's momentum carried both himself and the synthetic to the ground and for an instant, they lay there, a tangle of synthetic and organic limbs. Then the trooper snaked a hand around and locked it in an iron grip around the Spectre's throat.

Though he struggled mightily, Shepard couldn't break the hold the trooper had on him. Slowly and inexorably, the synthetic rose to its feet, holding its prey aloft in a one-handed grip. Shepard's feet dangled uselessly above the floor.

"Shepard!" Williams cried out as she rounded the corner at a slower pace. Beside her, Fredericks pulled up sharply and swore.

"Williams..." Shepard managed to choke out, "Shoot it!"

"I can't! You'll be hit!"

"I'd...rather...chance that...than be choked to death.." Shepard's voice began to fade as his face turned purple.  
Voicing a banshee-like cry, Williams ran headlong at the pair, tackling them both to the ground. The geth emitted a surprised-sounding bleep but didn't relax its grip. Lips pulling back from her teeth in a snarl, Williams slammed her right fist into the centre of the blue-glowing optical interface. The back of the geth's head smacked into the floor. The head swivelled towards Williams who all but shrieked, "Let him go! Let him go, you motherless prick!" and punched it again.

"Damn it, Williams," Fredericks snapped, "I can't get a shot!"

Nailing the geth a third time, Williams rolled to one side, giving Fredericks the opening he needed to shatter the trooper's head with a shotgun blast. The geth's hand opened as it fell limp and Shepard climbed to his feet, breath rasping in and out of his bruised throat.

"You good to go, sir?" Fredericks asked.  
Shepard merely nodded and resumed running.

"Self destruct sequence initiated. Core detonation in three minutes," the VI announced to the mostly empty complex. Wearily Vixen closed her eyes, "This isn't how I pictured myself going out - vaporised in a ball of nuclear fire." She sighed.

"You're not dead yet," a voice whispered and she opened her eyes. Her brother stood before her along with his squad. "You look like I feel," he commented and there was something terribly wrong with his voice but Beth didn't think they had time to worry about it.

Shepard knelt by Bethany's side, gently stroked her hair. "Can you walk?" he asked.

Bethany found the strength to glare up at him, "Give me a break, I can barely stand."

"Guess I'll carry you out, then."

"Yeah, well, I'm sorry I'm such a _burden_!" Bethany snapped as her brother lifted her up.

"Beth?"

"What?"

"Shut up."

Bethany poked her tongue at him. Ignoring her, Shepard hailed Joker, "Shore party to _Normandy,_ what's your status, over?"

"All passengers are aboard, we're just waiting for you, Commander."

"Copy, we're on our way."

Liara and Tali stood inside the umbilical connecting the _Normandy _to the facility's airlock. The VI had just announced that there were three minutes until they were all reduced to their constituent atoms, though not in so many words. Liara had time to ponder all the missed chances in her life. There was still so much about the universe that she now would never have the opportunity to explore. The young asari regretted that she never had the time to get to know Bethany better and suddenly wished that Commander Shepard had brought her along to rescue Bethany, so that Liara could hold her hand and offer comfort in those final few moments before...before

"Oh Goddess!" Liara moaned, tears gathering in her eyes. Tali turned her faceplate towards her, "They'll be here," she said firmly.

Almost as though summoned by Tali's words, the group of humans appeared at the far end of the corridor, running flat out. Liara's heart and spirit soared as she saw Bethany slung across the Commander's shoulders, very much alive. Between them, Chief Williams and Private Fredericks carried the bloodied form of Doctor Savrashi.

As the group approached the umbilical connecting the facility's airlock to the _Normandy_, Tali raised Joker on the comm, "Joker, they're just arriving! Power up the engines and prepare for launch!"

"Already on it," came the pilot's reply.

The synthesised fembot voice of the VI announced, "Self destruct sequence initiated. Core detonation in sixty seconds."

Hoisted atop her brother's shoulders like a sack of grain, Bethany groaned through gritted teeth. The groan was one part frustration and one part physical pain as with each running footfall, tiny little pitchforks of torment wielded by smiling devils rammed through her body. They were so goddamn _close!_ Just another few dozen metres separated them from the _Normandy_. A dry voice began ticking off the seconds they had left, _one one thousand, two one thousand._..

The dry voice had ticked up to 35 when the quality of Shepard's footfalls changed, signalling that they'd crossed over to the umbilical. They were almost there...

Bethany began to chuckle as a line from an old action flick popped into mind, "Get out! Get out of dere! Come on! Get into da chopper!"  
Bethany was still laughing crazily, tears running down her face when they got into da chopper...sorry, _Normandy._

There were mere seconds left before the installation went nova. No time to run the decon system so the squad threw themselves flat onto the deck inside the airlock as the outer doors sealed shut, severing the umbilical connection. As soon as his status board indicated the hull was secure, Joker punched the thrusters up to full military power, and an audible hum could be heard emanating throughout the bulkheads. The SSV_ Normandy _blasted away from the unnamed asteroid. Milliseconds later, an immense ball of white light erupted from the depths of the rocky terrain, annihilating the remaining geth and rachni and hollowing out the asteroid. The shockwave buffeted the frigate's crew, tumbling Shepard and company around the inside of the airlock like so much laundry inside a gigantic, demon-possessed tumble dryer.

In the bridge, Joker's fingers danced over the amber-glowing controls as he fought to bring the ship back under control. After several tense seconds, the_ Normandy_ levelled out and made for clear space beyond the asteroid field and Joker breathed a sigh of relief.

Inside the airlock, a battered and bruised Commander Shepard slowly climbed to his feet and helped his sister up. Bethany leaned back against the bulkhead, muscles trembling as the adrenaline leaked from her system. "Is it just me, or did we outrun a nuclear explosion?"

From her position seated in a corner, Williams answered her, "No, we did just outrun a nuclear explosion." Her voice was subdued as she remembered the _last _time they'd outrun a nuclear explosion. Virmire. At least this time, they hadn't left one of their own behind.

"What happened? Where am I?" Savrashi's voice, thin and reedy surprised them all.

"What are we gonna do with him?" Bethany asked her brother.

"I guess we deliver him to the Citadel and let C-Sec handle him."

Savrashi's eyes started from their sockets, "No! You cannot! You-"

Wincing slightly, Bethany knelt down until she was eye-to-eye with the scientist, "I suppose we _could_ just throw you out the airlock. What do you think, Commander?"

Shepard stroked his chin in a serious manner before replying, "I suppose we could. The official reports could just say that the good doctor was devoured by the very rachni he was trying to control. Ironic, really."

"No! No, please! I'll come along quietly," Savrashi babbled, holding his hands out in supplication.

"Augie?"

"Beth?"

"I never thought I'd hear myself say this, but I think I need to see the nurse."

The _Normandy _didn't possess a brig per se so after his injuries were treated by a truly venomous Nurse Kitty - he'd almost killed her new best friend after all - Savrashi was sedated and tucked into a sleeper pod. Private Fredericks' sleeper pod, Shepard informed Bethany with a small smile. Bethany herself rested comfortably in the medlab, chatting idly with Kitty. Now that the awkwardness of their initial meeting had been dealt with, Bethany found Kitty to be quite an interesting conversationalist.

Kitty was telling Bethany about a guy she knew who only dated women named Cassandra - after his first girlfriend - so that he never had to worry about yelling out the wrong woman's name during sex. Bethany laughed at this until the ache in her side made her stop. The bullet that had so recently resided in her stomach now rested in a small glass tube, and Bethany decided to keep the bullet as a souvenir. Maybe have it made into a necklace or something, she hadn't decided yet.

During the flight back to the Citadel, Shepard and his crew discussed what they should do with the research data taken from Dr Savrashi. "We could sell it to the Shadow Broker," Fredericks suggested, "We'd make a shitload of money! Uh, sir."

Shepard just glowered at the private and dismissed him. As he left, Williams spoke up, "You know, that isn't a bad idea. If we turn it over to the Alliance, who's to say that a sleeper agent working for Cerberus won't get the data and start all over again?"

"Williams, I am not dealing with the Shadow Broker. I don't trust him. Her, them, whatever. The data goes to Alliance High Command. I trust them to do the right thing."

Williams smiled at her lover's endearing naivete and shook her head.

---

"How are you feeling?" Shepard asked his sister. Bethany, still confined to the medlab, scowled up at him from her place on one of the beds. "I'm bored out of my mind back here."

"What? Aren't I _stimulating_ enough for you?" Kitty bantered playfully from her workstation.

Bethany just rolled her eyes. "Look, I'm fine, OK? Kitty opened me up, removed the bullet, closed me up. Can I _please_ get out of here?"

Before the Commander could reply yay or nay, Kitty spoke up again, "Oh, I'm beginning to feel a little maligned over here."

"Kitty?" Beth looked over at the younger woman.

"Yes, sweetie?"

"Be a sweetheart and bring me a coffee or something, hey?"

Kitty practically skipped from the medlab, whistling happily. As she left, Bethany called out, "Dump a slug of whiskey into it, as well!"

"Belay that!" Shepard barked at Kitty's retreating form.

"Spoilsport," Bethany grumbled. She frowned a little as her brother took her hand.

"Beth, you almost died back there," he began. She rolled her eyes.

"Don't think I don't know that!" Beth hissed. "I can pull up my top and inspect the goddamn bullet wound anytime I want!" Irritably, Bethany ran a hand through her hair, tousling it further. "That's my modelling and escort career shot," she muttered then laughed, "Shot. Get it?"

Still holding her hand, Shepard replied, "Can't they just airbrush out the scars? Don't they do that as a matter of course?"

Beth shrugged, "Yeah but the escort agency prides itself on providing 'flawless women.' This one girl took 'em to court after she underwent an emergency appendectomy. The agency refused to sling any more work her way on account of the scar."

"Did she win?"

"Settled out of court. The payout was about two-fifty K, something like that." Beth shrugged again. "I'm getting too old for that kind of thing anyway."

"Beth, as your brother, this is difficult for me to say but you're beautiful."

"Uh huh, I'm also thirty-four and up against girls almost half my age. It's fine, really," she said, waving her free hand. "Besides, after all this action, I feel the need to explore other possibilities."

"Like?"

"How much trouble would you get into if you signed me on as a mercenary?" Beth smiled at her brother's reaction, his eyes went wide as saucers and his eyebrows migrated to his hairline.

"Mercenary?"

"Yeah, like a hired goon."

"Beth..I..couldn't."

"Because it's against regulations, right?" Bethany scowled again, wrested back her hand and folded her arms over her chest.  
Shepard shook his head, "Because you almost died on my watch once and I won't let it happen again."

"I appreciate your concern but I'm a big girl and I can handle myself. Anyway, I'll be a lot safer with you keeping an eye on me than if I go my own way. Which I will do, if you don't sign me on."

"I'll need some time to think things through, Beth. Promise me you won't go off and..." Shepard stopped talking as the medbay doors hissed open, revealing Nurse Kitty holding a mug of steaming coffee. "Beth, I'll leave you to it." He nodded to Kitty as he passed.

Sitting up in the bed, Beth took the mug and sipped. She smiled as she felt the liquor warm her from the inside. "Thanks," she said. Kitty just smiled and said nothing.

As she drank her alcohol-fueled coffee, feeling the warmth spreading through her, Bethany's mind began to form plans for her future. She figured the Citadel would make a better place to launch her new career as a gun for hire and wandered how much it might cost, having all her crap shifted off-world from Terra Nova. Then there was Mister Darcy to think of. Likely she'd have to hire somebody to babysit him while she was on assignment. Didn't Liara have a place in the Citadel? Maybe she could...Eventually, lulled by the whiskey, Bethany's eyes closed and she slept.

She slept. But she didn't dream.

The End

**Final Thoughts**

I just want to finish off by thanking my reviewers and everybody who read this. Writing _Catapult_ was quite a fun experience for me and the fact that so many people had a fun time reading it is just a bonus as well. The little fiction gremlins (or wherever the hell my ideas come from) are whispering ideas in my head for another story starring Bethany. So hopefully she'll be back at some point.


End file.
